


Catch The Stars

by SooperWeeb



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Aliens, F/M, Fanfic, Female Leader, Planet, Rebellion, Romance, Slow Burn, Strong Female Characters, altean, commander - Freeform, galra - Freeform, space, universe - Freeform
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-03-02
Updated: 2021-03-07
Packaged: 2021-03-15 12:54:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 23
Words: 78,182
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29808705
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SooperWeeb/pseuds/SooperWeeb
Summary: In the 10,000 year war going on throughout the universe, there are too many who despise Zarkon's rule. But none will act on their hate, too scared of the consequences. The biggest rebelling force against the Galra to date are the Olympians. And their leader is 17-year-old Trip."Sometimes there is no next time. Sometimes it just ends."||Also posted on Wattpad||
Relationships: Keith (Voltron)/Original Female Character(s), Keith Kogane/Oc, OC/OC
Kudos: 2





	1. Chapter 1

"Heda." (Commander)

The 17-year-old girl didn't move as her rank was spoken from behind her by her guard. Her eyes were glued to the village she called home. Kids, teens, and adults alike were walking amuck, all of them with one thing in common. A weapon of choice carried on their bodies with easy access.

Heda's own weapon was the sword kept on her back with an old strap made of leather. She watched a girl no more than 7-years-old train with her father using a small dagger. This was not unusual, everyone here is trained from the day they start to walk. Trip hummed to show Haron that he had her attention.

"Te grantes he kare." (the recruits are here) He spoke their native tongue. Trip nodded her head.

She gave the training family one last look before turning to face Heron. He was a well-built man, as most Olympian men were. He had a beard of red hair to match his long hair that was done in braids. He wore the armor of their people. black with red accents, and in the center of his chest was his rank symbol. His was a circle with an X drawn through it. Heda's guard. His own weapon of choice was a hammer, well more like an oversized meat tenderizer. It fit his intimidating demeanor

"Jecre, Haron." (thanks, Haron) She says, "ecro te uro. Kit da en." (open the door. Let them in).

Haron followed her orders without hesitation. He pulled the heavy wooden door so no one could see the first-line recruits. She adjusted her stance so she was standing tall with her arms folded behind her back. Her face held no emotion and her eyes were steel cold.

The door in the back of the room was pulled open by Haron. And a line of both males and females walked in, dressed in the same armor as her second, but no painted symbol on their chest plate.

6 of them in total and all deemed worthy of being in their Heda's presence by Haron himself. So Trip looked them all over carefully as they stood in a silent line. The room remained silent for a long moment, and she could tell that they were getting nervous under her gaze. Half of them were older than her, but she held all power over them and their families.

"Cou ta jatha cou nort o secut ie tuc?" (You all think you're worthy of fighting first line?) She walked forward slowly, and watched as their bodies tensed in nerves, "cou wusay se je Haron. Quet wus se je kane. Cou Heda." (you proved it to Haron. Now prove it to me. Your Commander.)

They all nodded in sync. You don't speak directly to the Heda unless they are speaking directly to you. You're taught this from a young age. It's the first rule most are taught in their families. Trip walked along the front of the line, looking down each of the possible warriors. All of them were obviously strong, even the girls. With defined muscles and stony glares straight ahead to show a lack of emotion. They all appeared to be determined to have their armor engraved with the warrior symbol.

"Cou scerut teron eeron en shicron o jou. Te hcourn beeon kkiro shall necron ie tuc." (you fight each other in groups of two. The last three standing will become first line). She glared harshly at all of them. They remained unflinching at her words but she could tell that a few were rather worried about the challenge of fighting the others. All the while, she paced calmly in front of them still.

She stopped directly in front of a girl. She turned to look at her carefully, like inspecting her closer to see if she was really worthy. She made it this far. To stand in front of their Heda and hear her voice spoken to them directly.

The girl she was staring down had a long scar running from the bottom of her left eye to the edge of her jaw bone. Her shoulders were broad and easily held up the armor she and everyone else were sporting. She didn't move her eyes to her Heda, as a sign of respect. On Olympia, it was considered rude to make eye contact with anyone above your rank while training with them. In her mind, Trip deemed this a good group with promising potential.

"Haron." Trip said loudly, "Narole da op." (pair them up) she turns from the girl and saunters to the center of the room. There sat her throne, the back made of tall and twisting branches with helmets and armor pieces hanging from them. She sits down on the base, which was made from a strong tree trunk and was considerably comfortable. At least to her.

"Neo, Heda." (yes, commander). The burly second-in-command stepped forward and began sternly shouting orders to the recruits.

The young Heda calmly sat back against her throne and watched them gravitate towards the person Haron had paired them with. Every one of them pulled a weapon of choice from somewhere. A sword or dagger was shown in all of their hands. And all were given a wooden sheld from Haron as Defense. Heda smirked as the first pair stepped into the front of the room with their blades raised. They awaited the word to begin.

"Jaunt." (begin) she says.

At the same time, the Olympians were gaining new first-line fighters, the biggest threat to Zarkon was traveling across the galaxy and was close to their very planet  
At the same time, the Olympians were gaining new first-line fighters, the biggest threat to Zarkon was traveling across the galaxy and was close to their very planet. Voltron and it's paladins were landing on a small and barren moon occupied with only one broken ship and three residents.

There was a male alien breed with purple skin and white hair, only visible on his forehead where it poked out of the old fashion earth pilot cap he was wearing. A girl alien of a different breed sat across from him around a small fire to keep warm. Her hair and skin were yellow, her hair (if you can call it that) was in two long pigtails on the top of her head. The last resident still there was a small rectangle robot with two pointed ears on its head and two legs with wheels to move it around.

They all were sat around the fire in silence and weren't expecting anyone to answer the false distress beacon they had sent out.

But a strong and constant gust of wind swept over their campsite, blowing out the fire they had made. All of them turned towards the source of the wind, eyes wide. A ship was hovering above them, made of some pure white material with bright lights showing casting off of certain parts of it and shining down onto.

A voice boomed out from the ship above them.

"Do not panic. My name is princess Allura and we are here to assist you."

They watched as the ship began to turn sideways and lower its engines slowly onto the rocky ground below them. A few feet from their own ship. It's engines cut and it sat on the ground with a loud thud!

Rolo and Nyma share a look at one another, while Beezer whirs his own notice of the arrival. They had their plan down since they had done this before. Ask for help and take whatever valuables they have on them. They would sell off what they got for a pretty price.

From the bottom of the ship, a bright blue light shone onto the ground. Then a round platform, big enough to hold all 6 that were on it, began lowering in the area of light. It was obvious that the technology on the ship was not a very common kind. The pure energy was something rarely found on any planet let alone flying through space.

Rolo and Nyma stand as they see the approaching party offer smiles, "you don't know how glad we are to see some friendly faces." Rolo says while crossing his arms to appear nonchalant, "not many folks wanna get tangled up with people on the run from the galra." He waves the wrench in his arm as a greeting.

The one dressed in a uniform of red speaks first, "so you guys are fighting the galra?" he didn't seem too impressed by what he saw.

"Well I don't think Zarkon is exactly quaking in his boots at the three of us, but we do what we can." A common lie he and the others on the small team told. It usually gained the trust of those who offered help when they thought they were going against Zarkon, the one everybody in the galaxy hated. But in reality, if working for Zarkon paid well they would switch sides easily.

He drops one hand to his hip, "I'm Rolo." the other hand waves over his shoulder at the two behind him, "that's Nyma, and our cyber unit beezer."

"Hello," Nyma speaks to them for the first time. Her voice soft and innocent-sounding as opposed to Rolo, who sounded as if he had a cold he hadn't been able to shake for a few years.

Beezer whirs while his metal ears move up and down as if he was waving to them.

Two of the others in colored uniforms, green and blue, were immediately enthralled by what was just shown them. Lance by the beautiful girl he could try and swoon, and Pidge by the technology of Beezer. Both of them burst forward to get closer to their new obsessions for the night.

"Hi, the names Lance."

"Cool robot!"

Rolo doesn't seem very impressed as he watched the two victims of their lies try and get close with his friends.

"Was your ship damaged in a fight?" The one in the black uniform asked, making the purple male alien turn his attention back on them.

"Yeah." he says casually, "we've really been through it with the Galra." he turned his head up and to the left so he could look at the ship he and his friends called home. It was big and spacious but obviously had taken a few hits over its years. the orange and gray paint was chipping in many places, and dents scattering it also didn't help its appearance, "parts are hard to come by. Luckily we managed to limp to this moon a few weeks ago. If you didn't pick up our distress signal I..."

He trailed, assuming they got the point.

The woman in front with white hair smiles at him, "we're happy to help." she says and he looks back over at them, "I'm princess Allura of Altea and from now on you won't be alone fighting the Galra. You'll have the paladins of Voltron by your side!"

She was obviously proud to be stating that last part. But he had no idea what she was talking about. He had heard the name Voltron before, but whoever or whatever it actually was remained a mystery to him. He hummed and looked at the three 'paladins/ in front of him. The three males looked formal and almost intimidating in their black, red, and yellow uniforms and straight postures. But then Rolo looked behind him at the other two. The one in green was sitting on top of Beezer with a childish grin as he (or she?) played with its ears. And the one in blue was talking rapidly to Nyma and trying desperately to impress her with whatever he was saying.

Rolo sighed and recrossed his arms, tapping his finger on his skin, "okay?"

The one in black who held himself tall and strong, almost military-like, said, "I don't think they've heard of us."

"Well, it has been 10,000 years." says the red paladin.

Lance, who seemed to have selective hearing, turned towards them all again when they mention Voltron.

"Voltron?" He asks, "five robot lions that combine into this big robot guy?"

Rolo hums and raises his eyebrows, "sounds impressive." he says, "I'd love to see it...or him...or them."

The yellow paladin speaks up in impatience, "Why don't we get to work on your ship. I'm sure we all have places to be."

Rolo brushed off his hurried tone and nodded calmly "sure." and then let them to the side of the giant orange and gray ship.

The paladins, who's names were finally passed out as Shiro, Keith, Pidge, Lance, and Hunk didn't let them onto the huge castle of lions. So instead Rolo gave them a list of parts and Hunk was sent inside to get them from someone named Coran.

The others remade the fire while Hunk went to get the parts, and everyone was gathered around it to keep warm in the cold moon air and make small talk.

Rolo was talking to the paladins while Nyma and Lance were talking a little farther away, "my planet was destroyed by the Galra and I was taken prisoner." he says as if this didn't affect him anymore, "I managed to escape but, not before I lost something." he knocks on his right leg, and the sound of metal echoed back to everyone.

Shiro nodded in understanding, "I know how that feels." he flexed his arm and the sound of machine whirring sounded from it.

Hunk finally emerged from the castle then, pulling a large Altean crate on a levitating dolly behind him. Though it was floating while being pulled, it was obviously still heavy.

"Okay." He grunts while letting the crate come to a stop, "hopefully there are some parts in here that'll...fit." He gasps in a breath at the end.

No one saw that he had come back so Rolo didn't acknowledge that he spoke. This annoyed the yellow paladin. He had places to be that were more important than helping a group of people he didn't know or trust.

"Ya know." he speaks a little louder, "to get your ship running."

Rolo finally turns his head back with a small and calm smile, "great, thanks." he says.

"So." Allura picks back up the conversation, "what can you tell us about Zarkon's forces? Where are they concentrated?"

Pidge, behind them, goes whirring by on Beezer with loud laughter. No one reacted to this as it was obvious the two were enjoying themselves.

Rolo narrows his eyes as he thinks about Zarkon, "well his command ship sits right in the center of the empire." he says, "he calls the shots from there and has his goons do the work depending on who's closest. We're in the territory of a nasty guy called Sendak."

The name rung a giant alarm bell with all the Paladins. Keith rolled his eyes, "oh we've met."

"How far are we from the center?" Asks Shiro, trying to build a mental map of the empire.

"We're way out on the fringes," Rolo says. He opened his mouth to say more when they were interrupted by Hunk.

"Hey guys." he says, "I think you're kinda keeping Rolo from working," he says and then hurriedly explained himself before they assumed he was just being rude, "it's just that we're kind of in a hurry. This hero named Shay saved my life and I promised I would return and do the same for her and her people. You understand, right?"

Rolo nodded while standing up, "Sure. Sorry." he patted his shoulder while walking by to get to the crate of parts.

Shiro approached Hunk since Rolo was now out of earshot, "Hunk." he says to his friend, "we're going to get going soon but I think Rolo might have some information that could be useful to us."

Shiro was a natural-born leader so his tone took on one of assurance and determination. Though Hunk still felt off about them, he knew something was wrong, despite him usually being the nicest and sweetest of paladins.

He narrows his eyes, "I don't trust this guy as far as I can throw him." he says, "I think we should just leave them the box of parts and say adios amigos."

"Hey, bud!" Rolo interrupts them, "think you could hunt down a length of thermal pipe about" he holds his hands out a foot apart, "this long."

"Ugh." Hunk groans, "on the way." he wanders away from Shiro with a sour look on his face.

Shiro approached Rolo by himself with more questions, "So. Are there more freedom fighters? Any kind of organized resistance against the empire?"

Rolo nods, "first people that come to mind are the Olympians." he says, "they're pretty strong. I'd say they stand a chance if they went up against a bunch of Zarkon's men. Maybe not Zarkon himself."

Shiro was intrigued by that, "why do you say that?" He asks, "Zarkon's men are pretty strong."

"But the Olympians are ruthless." Rolo explains, "they don't believe in mercy. And they all dedicate their lives to ending Zarkon's rule." he hums, "gotta admire 'em though, no doubt about that."

"So you know where we can find them?" Shiro asks, his interest peaks. They hadn't heard about this group before and Rolo obviously thought they were worth praising.

"Oh yeah." He says, "They're 200 klicks south of here. Green planet, covered in trees. And, a word of advice if you decide to pay them a visit." he smirks, "don't."


	2. Chapter 2

It was morning training. The sun hadn't risen yet, and the stars still shone brightly in the sky of Olympia.

Despite it being so early, the community was alive with grunts and clashing of swords and commands of "Conuo kura" (strike fast) and "kkir clao" (stand tall).

Trip was inside her hut, doing her own training with Harron in the light of torches around them. They stood an equal distance apart, swords drawn and ready to train without holding back.

Trip raised her blade so the tip faced him. It was an Olympian sign that this wasn't meant to kill the other, just to train and make the other stronger. He mirrored her actions.

She stepped a foot back and squared her shoulders in a battle stance. Harron made the first move. He charged forward with his sword raised and brought it down directly over her head. The young girl easily lifted her own heavy sword while making a hard right swipe. Her sword caught his on the way down, using his strength to throw it back up and make him take a step back to avoid losing his footing.

She used this moment of regaining balance to swing her sword at his exposed abdomen. He jumped back and barely avoided her hit. His sword came down and clashed on the side of hers so it was moved away from him.

Trip swung first this time, a sideways swing towards his side, knowing this is his weakest point as he forgets to block it. He sees where she's aiming and remembers to block it with a loud crash of metal on metal. She steps forward as she swings again, this time going for an under swipe angle. She had found that if you advance on a target, they'll instinctively back up until you've cornered them.

So with a few more swings, she almost had him back against her throne and she had almost won this training battle. But he knew her very well, personally and battle wise. So he knew her tactics and what she was going to do. She takes what she believed would be the step that would pin him down onto the chair. But he ducked under her sword and swiped his feet roughly into her ankles so she toppled over and onto her back.

"Cou fian ka te byan caront." (you rely on the same tactics) he says to her, "tatian." (don't).

He made the move to swing his sword down onto her body. Luckily, she moved before his blade could touch her pale skin. She rolled over onto her side, using her own sword to force his feet out from under him so he's on the dirt ground of the hut. She then flings her lower body up, using the momentum to land on her feet.

She swings her sword in the same motion, right at Harron's head. It freezes inches from his face. She's leaning over him with a devilish grin as she pants heavily.

"Kane racan." (I win) Trip grins at her friend before standing up to her full height again.

She puts the sword into the sheath that rests on her back and then extends her hand out to help him. He smirks up at her and takes her hand.

"sian lor cou Heda." (that's why you're the commander) he says while putting up his own weapon. They had been training for a while now, and it was time for her to do her rounds outside and see how her people are doing on their own training.

Her training gear isn't something she wears about the outside of her hut. So she disappeared into her room again out the door behind her throne. In it was her bed, or what she made into a bed since It was made out of multiple blankets and pieces of fabric, and a large mirror with no frame, and a table made of scrap wood and old rope. It wasn't exactly the most comfortable place but it got her through the night. On the table was her everyday outfit.

She took her time changing, enjoying the silence and time alone she never got any more. Since becoming Heda, her time was always consumed with battle plans and training and keeping everyone on their toes for an attack or a mission. And it was always loud with people shouting and weapons clashing and the whispers of some. She was aware that people questioned her and her position. She also knew they wondered if she wasn't too young to be commanding an army. And she didn't disagree with them. But she held herself with confidence when in the eyes of others and tried her damn best. So her rare alone time when no one was whispering was when she would let herself sit down and take a deep breath.

She hooked the red cape onto her shoulder and looked across the small space she got to have to herself. The mirror leaning against the wall where she was able to see herself reflected someone back she vaguely knew. She didn't look or feel seventeen. No seventeen-year-old she had ever known had an entire army behind them, or had the safety of hundreds, including children, on their shoulders. Or had the marks of a leader on their face. The three painted lines on her forehead felt hot against her skin as she remembered their presence.

There were many other designs that people wore to show what they contributed to their lives. Healers, farmers, blacksmiths. It would coordinate with the markings on their armor.

Trip's were fading with the sweat of training. She saw her skin peeking through and wanted to rub it off.

But despite wanting to be a normal teenager, she grabbed the hollowed-out nutshell from the table. Inside of it was a thick charcoal paste that she used to renew the markings. When she was satisfied with how thick they were, she dropped the rest of the paste back down. She looked in the mirror across the room one last time. Then fled her safety room with the red cape flowing behind like a river of blood.

Harron is back in his armor as well when she returned to him, "clar, Heda?" (ready, commander?).

"nao." (yes) she exits her hut out the front door. The two guards outside of it click their heels together, hands by their sides and staring straight ahead.

She walks past them and their stances relax slightly. She trailed the paths between the small huts of families. With the sun slowly rising, the torches along the sides were being put out. As she passed by, people would stop their activities and click their heels together in a salute. And none looked at her directly. Even when she would examine them. And when she didn't seem impressed, they would tense up even more. This was how all Heda's were to act. Unphased, emotionless, like others didn't matter when their entire lives revolve around the well-being of others.

She smiled to herself as she was pleased with what she saw as she walked. They were the strongest of the rebel force and she prided herself on that. Her tribe, her family, was strong and everyone in the galaxy knew it.

"te shicron he larkon aill." (the groups are doing well) Harron speaks from beside her. He walked a step behind her. To respect her but also be close enough to aid her in battle. Though they were in the barriers of their homeland, that didn't mean Zarkon's troops hadn't found their home and wouldn't attack.

Trip nodded, "Kane a yanu." (I am aware) she said emotionlessly, "jen te grantes?" (and the recruits?) her brown eyes were settled on the sky as she waited for his answer. One girl and two boys had made it onto first a few days ago after fighting in front of their Heda.

"kura lenu." (fast learners) He grunted.

She nodded with no words. They continued their rounds with little spoken between them. The occasional comment on how their troops were doing on their missions and when they would be back. But the two rarely felt like talking after their fights in the morning and felt comfortable enough with each other to walk in silence.

They were nearing the front gates, the end of their rounds, and she saw the girl from training the day before. Harron must have put her on gate duty this morning. As soon as she saw Trip approaching them, her eyes went forward and her heels clicked together. She was new to their home, here maybe a month before she decided to fight for them. Trip was slightly proud of her. She was the first female on the first line since herself.

"Hannah," she says. The girl stiffens and nods her head to tell her she has her attention, "ba ment?" (any movement).

"kai, Heda." (no, commander) she says, "ta nel." (all quiet)

Trip stopped walking suddenly, eyes glued to the sky just beyond the front gates. When she reached behind her for the sword strapped to her back, Harron followed her eyes.

It was a huge ship. Obviously not Galra. Their ships were black with glowing purple to intimidate people. And it was far too silent to belong to some of the neighboring rebel forces who had ships. It made no noise as it slowly descended to the ground.

"Cou va te grants he kura lenu." (you said the recruits are fast learners) she repeats what he told her, "vani." (good) Trip says as she gripped the sword in her hand tightly, "ci kcle ddan." (we have company).

Despite how quiet the ship was when flying, by now everyone had noticed it. It was obvious as a ruckus started up behind her. The blinding white and light blue were hard to disguise on a planet covered in vast green and brown.

The sounds of weapons being drawn and grunts of "Galra" or "an attack" people were ready to go charging at full speed with blades flying. A problem with Trip's people. They wouldn't think things through if not for her. So as they approached her, in front of the large gates made of wood and metal, she held up a hand in the air. They stopped in their places and all noise ceased.

She watched it for a second longer, mind going a mile a minute. There was no logic in sending everyone in at once. Then there would be no backup if something were to go wrong. It made more sense for the first line to check it out, plus it would be experience for the recruits.

"ie tuc!"(first line) She shouted loudly and authoritatively, "unuma kane!" (follow me) only a few sets of feet were heard then, following her orders and standing behind her. She turned to the large crowd that was all staring at her, awaiting their own orders, "ie nena. xel unuma." (one hour. then follow) there were a lot of grumbles. Some of silent disagreement and some of acceptance of her orders.

"Harron." she turned to her second in command, but this time spoke in a language that none of the others knew, "bring the Jesters and stay here."

Jesters were large, strong, and fast four-legged animals that they used to travel long distances at home and on missions.

The man she called her friend opened his mouth to protest her orders. He was not only her second in command but her guard. His life was protecting her life. But she held up a hand before he could say anything.

"One hour. Then. Follow." She demands.

"Allura." Shiro spoke from his seat in the front of the ship, "did you find anything about the Olympians?"

The princess nodded, "not much but enough to give us an image of them." blue translucent screens appeared in front of her with words in Altean scattered around them. The paladins all turned their heads in the direction of her, all wondering what she learned about their hopeful allies.

"They don't seem to be a species per say," she explains while hitting a few buttons on the translucent screen. The same screens appeared in front of every paladin's chair, showing what she had managed to pull up, "but more like many species on one planet and in one society."

The screen showed a few pictures of multiple aliens of different kinds. There was a girl with green skin covered in scars fresh in the picture of her escaping from some kind of ship, a man with blue and red spots on his body holding a sword the same size as his body in a photo on a dusty planet. Another man showed up with tan skin, and tusks poking out from his chin, and very hooded eyes. He looked angry at everything, but that could be because the picture was a mugshot.

"And it seems their leader is..." she swiped her hand across the blue screen, and all pictures disappeared. Replaced with one picture of a girl who looked to be the same as the paladins themselves.

"Tripella." She says, "wanted at almost every galra station in this part of the galaxy."

Everyone was silent as they looked at the picture. Keith was the first to speak about the elephant in the room.

"She's human." He observes out loud. Does this mean there had been some kind of alien on earth before? Or at least had come to earth once. And had taken a human girl? It was the most plausible reasoning Keith could fathom. But it sounded a little absurd even to him.

The girl in front of them on the screen had matted brown hair, holding up a black sign that read a series of words they couldn't read. Her face was blank but her eyes screamed 'try something I dare you.'

"But..." Pidge trailed for a second in thought, "we've never met another human out here before."

Shiro, being the leader, spoke calmly and with a persuasive tone, "this could work in our favor. If the leader is human, we have a better chance of her listening to us."

"How do we even talk to them?" Lance asks from his seat with crossed arms, "they sound pretty 'kill first ask questions later' if you want my opinion."

"We don't," Keith says casually while still staring at the mugshot of Tripella. Lance gave him a glare from the corner of his eye.

Allura called out, "well you should probably figure it out soon. We're landing on their planet now."

The screens disappeared from everyone's seat and they could see out the front of the ship again. The planet that was deadly close was covered in vibrant green. A few patches of blue were the few bodies of water. It was the complete opposite of Earth, it seemed. But less ruined by its inhabitants.

While Allura lowered the ship into a clear landing space, the paladins were told by their leader to change into their uniforms. And then they were back into the control room, standing in uniform as the ship landed with a rattle onto the hard ground of Olympia.

Hunk nervously tapped his fingers together, "Sooo can we take our lions. I would feel a lot better with my lion."

"We shouldn't," Says Shiro, "we don't want to seem hostile. We're trying to make an alliance."

Hunk slumped in disappointment and let out a sigh, but he didn't argue. Shiro was right. They had to appear peaceful if they wanted this to work out in their favor.

"Okay, everyone," Says Shiro, "let's get down there. Hopefully, all goes well and we'll have an army on our side against Zarkon."

All paladins nodded in agreement. They all planted their feet on the outlined circled on the center of the floor. It detached with a jerk, and they were all slowly being lowered onto a planet full of hostiles.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yes, the language for the Olympians is based loosely on the language the grounders use in The 100. I used it as a base since its hard to build a language up from nothing.

The sound of Jester hooves pounding on the ground echoed throughout the forest. The group of 13 warriors was riding as fast as they could towards the white ship that had landed on their planet. Trip leads, eyes laser-focused on the path ahead of them.

The intruder's ship was just beyond the line of trees. In the polyflower field. Hopefully, they had done no damage to it. The polyflowers were favorites of the children on the weekends when they were allowed to take training breaks.

"Jost clar!" (swords ready) She called to the first line. Sounds of grunts and metal sliding are heard behind her as everyone follows her orders.

They broke through the trees. Despite the threat they were facing, Trip glanced around the field. The polyflowers were fine. The ship hadn't harmed any of them if it had intended to. Her eyes went back to the large white ship. Its design was oddly familiar to her. But she knew she had never seen this particular ship. She thought maybe she had seen one similar in a past raid they had done. Maybe even destroyed one or two of them.

Underneath it's towering form, there stood a group. All watching them race towards them with wide eyes. As if surprised someone had seen them land. But their ship wasn't exactly subtle.

All Jesters skidded to a stop in front of them and the ones dressed in green and yellow jumped backward.

Not fighters, Trip deemed, battle medics?

She reached behind her head and pulled the sword from its sheath. She held it by her side, ready to pull it up and fight if it came to that. And no one on her side would make a move to fight until she did.

"Wek he cou?" (who are you) . Trip knew they wouldn't speak their native tongue. But she found if she spoke in an unknown language first, they responded in their own. And as Heda, she spoke a variety of alien languages.

All of them shared looks of confusion at her voice. She awaited their reactions patiently. The one in the black uniform took one step forward to present himself as the leader. His hands went up to show he had no weapons and Trip let her eyes land on him emotionlessly.

"We aren't here to fight." He says, "we just want to talk civilly,"

Trip stared. They weren't Galra, but that meant nothing during war. Everyone is an enemy until proven otherwise. So she had to run through in her mind every scenario of what could happen in the next ten minutes in a matter of 30 seconds.

"Who are you?" She asks him in English, "why are you here?"

"We are the paladins of Voltron."

What happened next happened fast. She raised her sword instantly at his words, pointing the tip at the bridge of his nose. He had one scar there already, but she wasn't afraid to put another one on top of it. Then a red sword, obviously not one that belonged to her people, was pointed at her as well. The one dressed in red was beside his friend, sword pointed at her shoulder and anger on his face. In reaction, 12 other swords were all pointed in their direction. To defend their Heda and their honor.

"Um, Keith." says the one in blue nervously, "that didn't seem like a good idea."

Trip looks at the one they called Keith. Her blank expression did nothing to make him lower his own sword and she wouldn't budge her own for one boy with a weapon.

"Heda! Vae te len!" (Commander! Say the word). A guard to her left shouted. One flick of her wrist and she could have them all demolished. So one puny red sword almost made her laugh.

The one in black that 'Keith' was defending, reached up. He pushed the red sword down and said, "Keith stop."

She ignored them because she had the upper hand even if he did try something. 12 to 5.

She glares at the black paladin, "you land on my planet in a place where children play, you tell me lies, and you threaten me surrounded by my warriors?"

Though her voice lacked any kind of emotion, she was slightly impressed by how far their death wish went. Shiro looked around to see where they had landed. The green grass was full of brightly colored flowers that he had never seen before. It did look like a place kids would play.

"Look," he says, "I'm not lying to you. We are the paladins of Voltron."

Maybe he was crazy. Maybe they all were. The others were nodding along with his words behind him. Or maybe they were just here to report back to some enemy planet about them. Either way, they had not directly attacked any of them yet.

So she looked at them closely. She hadn't paid attention before, but now she noticed what they were. Humans. Like her.

Trip hadn't seen another human in...11 year now. And that particular human was dead. She assumed they were all dead now. But it appears she was wrong. But she felt as if there was one thing she couldn't be wrong about and that's that Voltron is not real. It's a tale told to children to make them feel like the war will end soon.

Slowly, she lowers her sword. Her people follow her lead, though some obviously reluctantly. Then she reaches up to slide it back into its casing on her back.

"Fine." She says, "follow us and prove it." she says and turns the Jesters. As she began trotting away on her Jester with her first line following, she doesn't hear them behind her. Without looking back she says, "or wait for the Cleogiants. They've been hungry lately."

With scared gasps, she hears three of them run to catch up to the back of the line. The other two calmly follow.

When they got back, everyone was ready to go at the paladins with everything they had. As soon as the gates were open, the crowd was screaming and raising their weapons for blood. Trip walked on as if no one was screaming "KILL THEM KILL THEM."

As she neared her hut, she jumped off the Jester and handed it to the first lineman behind her, who was glaring at the paladins. He took it, along with the rest of the Jesters, to their stables to be fed and watered after their trip.

Her hut door opened, Harron stepping out. His eyes found the strangers behind her and were glued to them. Watching each of them as if they would explode and take out their entire army. But he didn't speak against them when he made it to Trip's side. At least he wouldn't do so in public and question her authority.

She was ready to speak to the town, but they were still screeching and yelling and demanding blood. With one raise of her hand, the people in front were silent. And in turn, the people behind them followed, and then behind them, until it was quiet enough to hear a pin drop on the dirt.

"ci kcle te plino." (we have the intruders) she speaks loud enough for her people to hear her, "Kane shall boinit da." (I will question them), "hu do rach..."(if they fail) she smirked because she knew her next words would start a riot, "ci iki da." (we kill them).

A roar went over the town, startling the claimed paladins, who knew not what she had said. Her amused eyes went back to them, her smirk dropping and her serious expression back. She nodded over her shoulder and turned to walk through the door of her hut. The guards clicked their heels together as she passed, and glared down at the paladins when they did.

As soon as the door closed behind them, Harron was on her about bringing back possible enemies.

"Are you sure this is a good idea?" He asks her as she calmly makes her way to the throne covered in enemy armor, "what are they doing here and who are they?"

"How's your wife, Harron?" She asks casually while sitting down on the smooth chair of trees, "well, I hope? I didn't see her this morning."

He didn't appreciate this change in subject but got what she was saying without her saying it. She wouldn't put the people they both loved in danger if she could help it. He sighed and stood beside her throne with his hands clasped in front of him. His eyes didn't scream welcome, though.

"Now." Trip says as she turned towards the group of paladins, "know that, if you're lying about who you are in any way, the mob outside will be happy to rip you apart and feed you to the Cleogiants."

"Then it's a good thing we're not lying." The black paladin says confidently.

Trip hums and crosses her armored legs, thinking of how to go about this the smart way. And while she did, the large yellow paladin was bouncing and distracting her. She sighed at his nervousness and looks towards him.

"If you haven't done anything wrong, then why are you bouncing like that?" She demands. He stops immediately, going as still as stone.

He grinned sheepishly, "sorry sorry, but it's just that...well you guys...you all are pretty...scary."

As if that comment would offend them, the blue paladin elbows him. The black paladin steps up to get attention away from his sensitive and anxious friend.

"Tripella please we can--"

"Stop." She stiffens and flexes her hands, rolling her brown eyes, "god, I hate that name." she shivers, "I'm not sure who came up with it, but I'd add their head to my throne if I did." her face scrunched in disgust at the reminder of what she was always called. She shakes her head as if some terrible smell had invaded her senses, "however you found that name, wipe it from your vocabulary before I do it for you."

He closes his mouth and allows her to look them over again. Like inspecting food at the store, debating if it was worth the money or to tell the owners that it was no good. Finally, she spoke on her own accord.

"Voltron is a child's tale." she says, "a story to help kids sleep."

The leader shakes his head, "but it's not." He insists, "it's real. And I'm the paladin of the black lion. Shiro." he motions back to his group, "these are the other paladins. Keith, Lance, Pidge, and Hunk."

Now she had names to the faces, "well, Shiro. I've known you for 10 minutes, how am I suppose to believe you?"

"We can prove it." He explains, "we can show you Voltron. If we can just go back to our ship--"

She scoffs and uncrosses her legs, "back to your ship so you can attack us? Do you take us for idiots?"

He shakes his head, "no. But we can prove it to you. Just tell us how."

They seemed to be telling the truth. Or at least they believed that they were. But it didn't matter if they thought it was the truth, she needed it to be the truth. And she supposed that if they could form this mythical being, it was the only way to make her believe it.

"Harron," she says. Her second in command turns his head towards her, "take Shiro here to their ship. Just Shiro. Let him do what he can to prove that this child's tale is true."

He nods, "Nao, Heda." (yes, commander).

Shiro looks at the rest of the paladins, "I'll be back." he lowers his voice, "don't cause trouble." he looks over his shoulders at Trip, "Thank you."

She waves him off and they exit the commander's hut. She's left with the rest of the paladins and wonders about Harron's wife. She really did wonder if she was well. A visit could be arranged. She glanced up at the rest of them, bringing her thumb to her teeth to chew on the nail in thought. If they tried anything, there were guards and trained fighters everywhere. Even their children could take them down with ease.

She stands, "don't cause trouble." She demands, "I'm stepping out. If you leave, I won't be around to stop them from tearing your heads off."

The red paladin, Keith as he had been called, said, "you're a joy."

She stops in her tracks and looks at him. He seemed to be a temperamental person, and she didn't feel like dealing with him when she had more important matters to deal with. So she simply said, "stay inside." before disappearing into her room behind the throne.

With the door closed, she could approach the mirror. With a quiet grunt, she slides it to the side and reveals another door made of tied together branches and wood. It was the emergency escape that she was to use if under attack. But she also used it to get out for a few hours a week to see her best friend.

As she quietly stepped outside, she pushed some camouflage grass out of the way. And then pushed it back in front of the door to keep it hidden from the public. Upon turning around, she froze.

A child stood in front of her, eyes wide, hands clasping a bouquet of wildflowers. She was very young, maybe five. Not old enough to be wearing the typical child training armor. With chubby cheeks and a curious gaze, she knew that this was her leader, but was too young to know to salute her immediately.

Trip smiled. Uncharacteristic for her, but she was a sucker for a child. She pushed a finger to her lips and said "shhh"

The little girl nodded and watched as the commander turned to sneak down the back of her hut. Then she also continued on her way.

Trip knew where Harron and his wife lived by heart. She was friends with his wife long before she was friends with him.

They were in a small hut at the edge of their town. The same one Haylie had lived in when Harron arrived here what felt like years ago. They had all spent several nights together there, wondering if they would ever get to fight in the first line and avenge what they had lost.

She knocked softly on the back door, knowing if she went out front she would be spotted.

It opened a few minutes later and she was relieved to find Haylie there and well. Hot pink skin, bright blue eyes, long pink hair, just as Trip remembered her. Only now, her stomach was swollen with a 9-month baby.

"Trip!" She gasps, "what are you doing here? The intruders?"

"Harron has one." She explains, "the rest can't leave my hut. The mob outside won't let them."

Haylie nods and wobbles aside to let her friend in, "hurry, before we have a mob of our own if you're seen."

When they had all met, they were the only English speakers. And Trip was surprised to find that it was their first language. Harron himself was half-human on his mother's side and Haylie on her father's. So they could always be calm and loose around each other. Even now, Trip found herself allowing for her form to slouch and her lips to smile.

As she walked inside, she brushed her hands against Haylie's swollen stomach, "how's the little one doing?" she asks.

Haylie sighs, "ready to get out." she says, "he won't stop moving when I'm trying to sleep."

Trip giggles and closes the door when she's all the way in, "well he'll be out soon."

Haylie waddles towards the bed in the center of the room. It was made of sheets and pillows are sewn together. Beside it was what they made into a baby bassinet. It was once a basket to hold wild nuts and berries that Haylie collected as a scavenger, but now it was full of blankets and soft material they could find.

Trip smiled when she saw it and sat down between the bassinet and her best friend, "Harron remembered to give it to you." she laughs when she sees inside of it clearly.

The stuffed elephant had been through as much hell as its previous owner. It was now missing an eye and its trunk had been sewn together many times with different colors of thread. Its plush fur had once been light blue but now was covered in green and brown from their surroundings. Despite never having seen a real elephant, Trip had been told as a child that it was an elephant and that they were much bigger in person.

Haylie looked at what she was talking about before chuckling, "yeah he remembered." she says, "It's so old I almost didn't recognize it."

"It's only been around the galaxy once or twice."

The two girls laughed heartily, something that pushed a weight off of Trip's shoulders. There's something about laughing with friends that can push away problems for a short amount of time and give you a break.

Their laughs died down and Haylie placed a hand on her belly, "so what brings the visit?" she asks.

Trip leans back onto the bed, "crazy day." she says, "and I didn't see you this morning on our rounds."

Haylie nods, "morning sickness." she says, "sorry about that."

Trip shrugs, "It's okay. I was just worried."

"More worried about me than the intruders who flew down on our planet this morning and are now sitting in your throne room?" she shook her head in disbelief and rubbed her hand in circles.

The teenage commander props herself up on her elbows, "well I'm pretty sure the intruders are insane." she says with a scoff, "they all claim to be paladins of Voltron. The giant robot made of robot lions."

Haylie looks at her with wide eyes and raises her pink eyebrows, "really? Voltron?"

"Yeah. Crazy stupid, right?" Trip rolls her eyes at it again because it was so absurd in her mind. But she got no response from Haylie and looked over at her in confusion. Usually, she would laugh and agree. But she was just staring at her. Trip gaps at her, "don't tell me you believe it!"

Haylie sighs, "well...a little." she says sheepishly. Her fingers drum on her stomach in thought, "I caught a glimpse of the ship that came down. Did you see how advanced it looked?"

"I did see it." Trip Says, "Up close. But Voltron? It's a myth."

Haylie shrugs and huffs at her disbelief, "maybe. Either way, Voltron can't get this munchkin out of me so I don't care."

"It can't be that bad." She says, "he's the size of a Juniper melon."

Haylie narrows her eyes at the belittling of her discomfort, "you try having a Juniper melon sit on your bladder all day every day for 9 months." she hisses.

Trip thinks about it and slowly nods, "yeah...sounds pretty irritating." she chuckles, "glad it's not me."

"It will be one day. And on that day I'll be laughing hysterically in your face." they share another laugh at the image of their future.

ROAR!

Before either could speak, the whole earth shook beneath them with the deafening sound of a roar. It made Trip's eardrums vibrate. Haylie gasped and instinctively brought her hands to her stomach. The house shook the dirt off the ceiling at the sudden and harsh vibration. Even the baby bassinet shook with the force of it.

"Stay here!" Trip demanded as soon as it ceased and was then dashing out the front door, pulling her sword from her back and ready to protect her best friend.

She didn't know what to expect, but a giant lion was certainly not it. And that's what she could see sitting in front of the gates from the other end of their small town. She stared at it in shock because it was exactly like the black lion told about in the 'children's tale' Voltron.

She hurried in the direction of her hut, getting there as fast as possible by going around the outside of all the huts and along the fence that outlined their homes. So when she did reach the gate, she wasn't noticed at first.

The gate was being opened slowly, and she saw Harron stepping inside first. Followed by Shiro. The giant lion was sitting just outside the gate as if it was put in park. She pushed past the crowd, and as soon as people saw who was walking through them, they all parted and formed a path for her to reach the front.

She wiped the emotions off her face, despite still being lighter from her short visit with Haylie. She remained calm and blank as she looked at the lion while her second in command walked into the hut to look for her.

She was in disbelief as she stared up at it. There was no way she could deny it now. Haylie was no doubt going to rub it in her face when she saw her again.

"Vere nak te Heda?" (Where is the commander?) Harron emerged from the front gates with the black paladin behind him. No riots broke out when the others appeared from her hut appeared this time, everyone was too stunned to demand their heads on sticks.

"Mere." (here) Trip says over her shoulder and turns to face the group. She looked unimpressed.

"We brought your proof." says Shiro, "now can we talk about what we came here for?"

Trip sighs through her nose, slowly sliding her sword back into place, "you have my attention."


	4. Chapter 4

One more stranger had come into the Heda's hut. They had all migrated from the throne room into a small room off the side of it. It was where Trip and her general's gathered to discuss plans of attack and defense. But today it was in use to discuss an alliance. Trip sat at the end, listening to everyone explain to her what had been going on in the universe where they had no eyes and ears.

Princess Allura, the one more stranger, who Trip so far had mixed feelings about, was discussing a plan with the Olympians as allies.

"We will go against Zarkon." She explains, "and when we do, we would like your help and support."

Harron looks at Trip with an unreadable expression.

"Kane ceil lo, Heda." (I don't know, commander) he says, "pliy von ci lo mon racon?" (how do we know they'll win).

She lifts a hand to tell him to be quiet. He made a good point. Voltron has been nowhere for 10,000 years, and suddenly they're good enough to fight Zarkon himself?

"And you know you'll win?" She asks suddenly, "there is no doubt, for a second, that you may lose?"

Her voice taunted the paladins. There was doubt in all of their minds that they would lose. Even in Allura's, she knew that the paladins were by no means the perfect Voltron. But she knew that they could be. If they were given the chance.

Everyone's hesitation spoke enough for her, "I can't put the fate of my people into the hands of people who aren't 100% sure they can win."

"We can win." Says Pidge. It was the first time she had spoken to the leader directly, "maybe not now but we will win."

"You know that. But how do I know that?" She asks this calmly. Not to taunt or make them angry but to try and get a real answer, "you proved Voltron is real but can you prove that you really are capable of ending this?"

"We can show you." Allura insists, "Come with us to see what Voltron can do."

She was extending an offer to come with them to the castle. She knew they would be one of their biggest allies in this fight, but only if they could prove that there was hope of them winning it.

Trip opened her mouth to decline instantly when Harron spoke again.

"von se." (Do it) he says as if it was that simple. She ignores him completely this time.

"I have people here," She says, "I can't drop everything because you asked nicely," Her eyes narrowed at the thought. Olympia would fall apart if she weren't there. Their violent natures wouldn't have a buffer and all her work would be wasted.

Allura insists, "it would be for a few days. Just to prove to you that Voltron can be the end of this war," No one on team Voltron went against this proposal. After all, they needed this alliance to have an upper hand against Zarkon.

"Kane meuq puin zan o fedan." (I can take care of things) Harron tried to persuade her to go as well, though she didn't know why he was suddenly so on board with this, "bu te guapano." (get the information). She didn't look at him as he spoke.

There was only one other person she trusted more than Harron, and it was the person who trusted him enough to marry him. So she took in his words and allowed herself to let him make this decision for her.

"Alright," she says to the princess, "I'll come. A few days, and then I'll decide if you have your alliance."

"Wonderful!" Allura says, "You'll see how powerful Voltron is!"

Trip then stands, her second following her as she leaves the room. The paladins were left there, an argument amongst themselves breaking out.

As Trip exited the room, she allowed Harron to follow her to her private dwellings. And without the door even closed, she used about half of her strength to whack her hand across the side of his head. Not enough to cause damage but to get across that was irritated with him.

He grunts and glares down at her, black eyes irritated, "what?"

"What? You just sent me onto a ship with possible hostiles!" she snaps as the door to her room fully closes, "this is could go south in so many different ways!"

"You didn't have to agree." He mutters and rubs at the spot where she had hit him, "I was just saying I think it's a good idea." he didn't find it funny like they would've in the past, and neither did she. This could end with her death, or all of them dead.

She groans and rolls her eyes, "why were you suddenly so interested in Voltron anyway? Seconds before that you were saying we can't trust them!" her head was starting to hurt in her anger and she rubbed her temples to try and stop it.

Harron grunts at the question. They had been friends for so long, it took him no persuasion to tell her his reasoning, "Haylie is having that baby soon." He says, "and I don't want that kid growing up like we did."

Her anger faltered at his words. They both loved Haylie and that baby. Different kinds of love but still love, nonetheless. And when he brought it up, the baby would be growing surrounded by swords and fighting. Not the loving a nurturing kind of community a child should be brought up in.

"It was like it all flew through my head in a second, Trip," her throat hitched. He rarely used her name anymore. It was always Commander. But using her name reminded her that they were best friends still, not just comrades, "all the shit that the three of us had to go through to just stay alive is ridiculous. My kid won't have to do that if I have a say in it." He crossed his arms and past his thick beard Trip could see his cheeks tinting pink in emotion, "So if Voltron can take down Zarkon, if it can stop the war, or even has a chance at stopping it, we gotta help."

Trip sighs, raking a tired hand through her hair. If Harron thinks this is positive, then dammit it must be positive.

"I hate when you're right." She mutters, "but if I come back and everything has gone to shit, I'm putting your helmet on my throne next."

"And I'll allow it." He smiles down at her. His black eyes go over her shoulder for a second, and then he's got her in a headlock. Not one of a true fight, but the brotherly kind that keeps her playfully trapped. He rubs his large hand over her head of brown braided hair.

She couldn't stop the laughter that escaped it. For a second, she was 15 again, play fighting with her best friend. Not discussing war plans.

Trip had just stepped out with Harron behind her, the paladins all left behind in the small room.

"This isn't a good idea," Says Keith immediately when he knows they're out of earshot, "it's a really bad idea."

Allura, annoyed at his uncooperative behavior, says "why is that?"

"These people only want death and blood!" He says it in a hushed whisper so he wouldn't anger anyone, "you think they want this war to end? They're probably cheering it on!"

"Keith," Warns Shiro with a narrow of his eyes, "we're trying to make friends, not enemies."

The red paladin gestures to where the leader of the Olympians had been sitting before, "did you hear them earlier? They probably only have enemies!"

"I kinda agree with Keith," Says Pidge, "they do seem a little...barbaric. To say the least," she was looking out the door, where she could see the throne where the leader usually sat. Armor covered in blood and gashes hung on the back of it in decoration. But she knew that the blood was very real.

"If they wanted war then why would they raid and destroy so many Galra ships? And what about the planet they freed full of civilians?" Allura said in defense.

Keith scoffed, "Because they enjoy the destruction?" he crossed his arms in an angry manner. No one else saw what he saw. He saw all the blood on their hands, on her hands. And he didn't think they regretted it even a little bit. They weren't sorry, or upset that they had ended lives.

"Keith," Shiro said more sternly, "cut it out. They're trying to end this war, the same as all of us."

Lance butted into their fight then, "she didn't seem to be too happy about coming either."

"Well, she is," Allura says, "that's all that matters. We have to show the Olympians that we stand a chance."

"No pressure," Hunk says, "the entire alliance with the biggest rebel force against Zarkon just depends on it."

"I'm just saying we can't trust them to really have our backs," Keith holds up his hands before Shiro can scold him again, "there I'm done."

"Well, I hope this opinion won't affect how you perform while fighting," Allura said it as a statement when this was obviously a question directed at him and Pidge. He grunted in response, and she took that as an 'it won't.'

"Nope," says Pidge.

"Good," Allura says and begins to stand, "I'm going back to the castle to prepare for our guest."

"I'll go with you." Says Shiro, "they said something about Cleogiants earlier."

Allura wrinkles her nose as he says this, nodding and allowing him to follow. As they were exiting the room, there was a laugh. It rang around the hut like a church bell and sounded out of place on this planet. They shared a confused look and glanced around the throne room. When they saw nothing, they walked on to prepare the castle for the important guest.

There were only two tasks to be done before leaving for a few days. One of which, tell Haylie goodbye. The second, tell the entire town that she would be leaving and that she was leaving Harron in command.

She approached the back door of the hut for the second time that day. This time, Harron in tow behind her.

The door opened and Haylie was less surprised this time. In fact, she was irritated that it took her this long to come back.

"Well, it's about time," She huffs, "I thought you two had been eaten by a giant lion." upon mentioning the giant lion, a big shit-eating grin crossed her face and she looked at Trip, "a giant lion," she repeats, "that's part of a giant robot, I presume?"

"Don't even." Trip says, "yes I was wrong. Voltron is real."

Haylie laughed lightly, "that's all I needed to hear," and she waddles aside to let her husband and friend in.

When the door was closed, everyone was slowly migrating to the bed because it was the only place to sit in the small hut. Trip sat with her back against the wall, Haylie on the edge beside the baby bassinet, and Harron at the end.

"Why a second surprise visit in a day?" Haylie asks, "is it a special occasion?"

"Hardly," says Trip, "your husband offered me up as a sacrifice to Voltron."

Haylie raised an eyebrow in confusion and looks at Harron for clarification, "I wouldn't call it a sacrifice." he says jokingly, "an offering is more like it."

She wasn't any less confused despite the two of them grinning at her as if that should be all she needed to know. She spun her finger in a circle, "I need some information that makes sense."

"I'm leaving for a few days," Trip begins, "I'm going with Voltron to see if they can really fight Zarkon and win."

Haylie's bright blue eyes doubled in size, "what?!"

"Calm down," Harron says immediately, "it's to see if an alliance it worth it or not."

Haylie looked between the two, "but that means you'll be going into basically the middle of the fight," She takes in a deep breath, "what if you get hurt? This is the middle of the fight with Zarkon!"

Trip realizes she was slowly starting to panic, and panic could send her into labor. So she leans forward and places a hand on her bright pink arm to calm her.

"I'm not going to fight," She assures her, "I'm going to watch them fight. I'll be out of Zarkon's sight, swear it."

Of course, this wasn't certain. Things could go sideways very quickly. But saying that wouldn't help Haylie feel better.

"But what if--"

"I'll be fine, Haylie. I'll be back in time to see the little munchkin finally pop out," She nods her head towards her stomach. As if remembering that she has a living being inside her, Hailee places a hand on her stomach and slowly nods.

"Just a few days," She says, "okay," she seemed to be calmer now, "but you better come and see me immediately after you get back."

Trip laughs, "I will. Promise."

"I'll drag her here if I have to," Harron pats his wife's leg, "we wanted to tell you before everyone else so you got some explanations."

Haylie nods, "I appreciate it. But now you have to deal with everyone else."

Trip rolls her eyes at the thought of all the yelling and demands of answers to why she's going away, "don't even remind me. I'm trying to forget about it."

Haylie finally giggles, "I'll watch it all from the safety of the hut."

"Damn right you will," Says Harron, "those people get fucking crazy sometimes."

"It's always a fistfight when something of interest happens." Haylie agrees with her husband with a nod of her head.

"Try being the one who has to handle it all," Trip brings a knee up to rest her arm on it, "it's like trying to pull two Cleogiants apart without losing a limb."

"I'm surprised you still have all your limbs." Harron laughs, "you're always pulling apart two people twice your size."

"It's not like you help."

"It's funnier to watch."

Trip blows a raspberry at him, making Haylie laugh.

"You'll be the one pulling them apart for a few days," Haylie reminds him after laughing, "if you come home with an arm missing, I'll know why."

Trip laughs, "unless its Braut you're pulling away," She says, "then you might just lose both arms."

The girls laugh together at his expense. A freeing moment before Trip realized she had to get up and break apart the last crowd of the day. The sun was beginning to set through the cracks in the walls. Orange light fell in a stream across the bed they all sat on until it slowly faded out back into dark, dusty air.

"I'll be back in a few days," she says while pulling herself up onto the ground again. Haylie stands up, with help from Harron. And she pulls her best friend into a hug, an awkward one because of her belly. When Trip pulls back, she adds, "if this little guy is here before I get back I'm gonna have a few things to say to him."

Haylie laughed, "I'll just hold him in until you're back."

"Good," They shared another hug, as tight as they dared. They were never really apart for long, it would be odd to not see each other in the afternoons every day.

Trip went out the front this time since it was easier to get to the gates from there. Harron left a few moments later after assuring his wife that Trip would be just fine out there.

The crowd hadn't dwindled in size all day. From the moment the ship landed, to now when they were about to leave. As she stood in front of the gate, the paladins that remained were ushered out of the hut to leave as well.

All Olympians were quiet as they stared at their Heda for her next words.

"Kane shall ine lince nip a coupe pla." (I will be leaving for a few days), "Harron ke kan jou en Hed. Unuma jis uca." (Harron is my second in command. Follow his orders). Her commands were simple but of course, the reaction was anything but.

As predicted, people began shouting. Demanding answers as to why she was leaving with these intruders and why they had a giant lion with them. She shared a look with Harron. Almost like a 'good luck' look. She looked back at the crowd and raised a hand. The movement made silence fall over the rowdy people.

"Yun kane quele, kane shall hui cou babk." (When I return, I'll give you answers). Is all she says. Surprisingly, no one began shouting again. She was shocked and couldn't hide this fact. Her brows raised and she hummed in approval.

She turned to Harron, "good luck. Don't destroy everything I'm working on," She half-jokes.

He scoffs, "from what I've learned from you, just yell and it's under control."

She holds down a smile and sticks out her hand to shake it as a farewell. If they hadn't been in front of their entire town, they might have hugged. But they both had a reputation to uphold and affection would put a big dent in them.

Trip turned and walked with the line of paladins, the gates creaking closed behind them.

She had never felt so out of place before in her life, and that's saying something. Being in a cell full of aliens as a child and never had she felt more uncomfortable than sitting in a high-tech alien ship. Which also happened to be a castle, she learned.

They were raised onto the ship using a hovering circle of the floor that had been cut out. And when it clicked into place, she regretted listening to Haron instantly.

"Wonderful, you're here!" Allura hurries over to the group. with a big smile on her face, "I'm so glad you decided to join us."

Not being able to say the same, Trip hums in response. Her sword felt very heavy on her back, seeing as she was the only one carrying a weapon. Were they all so comfortable in their own home that they didn't have weapons on them all the time? The concept seemed impossible to Trip.

"We have a room ready for you," Allura continues, "if you'll follow me, I'll show you to it."

Trip stepped off the platform. Her shoes, of which were covered in protective metal, clunked against the ground. The sound followed her, adding to the intimidating feeling that rolled off of her.

As Allura lead her through the long and twisting halls, babbling about where she could find the kitchen or the training deck, Trip felt very...dirty. Everything in the castle was remarkably clean and glistening white. And here she was in armor covered in dried blood and a red cape with dirt on the bottom. Not to mention she hadn't had a bath in the river for a few days. Her insecure teenager side was trying to break through, but the commander in her was screaming

'None of this matters. We're here for war, not to impress people.'

And the commander side was far more convincing. So she pushed away the idiotic thoughts that her looks mattered, and memorized where the training deck was from her room.

The doors opened upon sensing their movements. This made her uneasy. Would anyone be able to walk in when they wanted to?

"This is all yours," Says the princess, "it's not much, but it's only for a few days."

When she said 'not much' Trip almost laughed. This was far more luxurious than anything they had on Olympia. The mirror on the wall had a frame and was sparkling clean. The bed was a real bed, with a mattress and pillows inside pillowcases.

"It's fine," says Trip and walks farther into the room.

Allura smiles, knowing that was the best she would get from her, "the bathroom is right there if you need to clean up or anything of the sorts. Please feel free to join us for dinner when you're ready."

"Thank you, Allura," and the princess leaves the commander to herself. The door slides closed behind her when she does.

And finally, she's alone.


	5. Chapter 5

A real shower. With proper soap, and hair brushed to the point she could run her fingers through it. Never did she think she would see these things again let alone experience them.

She stepped out of the bathroom, steam rolling out behind her, wrapped in a towel and feeling like she had on new skin. Her markings gone, her scars on display in the mirror.

The ship had taken off while she was in the shower. She knew because a few red lights had flashed and the ground shook violently. But she had continued on and had gone unharmed. She looked around the room she would be staying in, seeing her clothes laying on her bed aligned perfectly clean and ironed. Even the cape was now back to its natural clean red.

Allura must have taken it upon herself to clean them while she was showering. It irritated her, despite the good intentions. She hated people in her personal space no matter the reason.

Shaking her head in irritation, she slides on her freshly cleaned clothes. Though, her shoes were missing from the bunch. Had she just forgotten to give them back?

The red cape was left on her bed unhooked to her uniform. She wasn't on Olympia, she didn't need the bright color to recognize her as the leader. Because here she isn't the leader and she would respect that.

There was a knock on her door as she was adjusting the thick leather armor that wrapped around her arms.

"Yes?" She calls, eyeing the door in the mirror when it opened. Upon realizing it was Shiro, she focused back on adjusting her armor.

"Hello, commander," He says politely, "dinner's ready if you'd like to join us."

She doesn't look at him when she speaks, "thank you, Shiro."

"You're welcome," he begins to turn away, eyes wondering what she was doing with the straps on her arm. He realized it was armor and felt the need to say something, "commander."

"Yes?"

"If you don't mind me saying, there's no need for so much armor here." he motions to what she was doing, "we've never had Galra manage to get on board the ship while we're flying."

Trip looked at him through the mirror finally, examining him carefully. He was obviously military trained. Whether it be by being in some kind of battle or growing up a military brat. He stood tall, shoulders back, and his feet were positioned to run at any moment. And he was no longer in his paladin uniform. He was now in a black t-shirt and a pair of long pants. She could see that one of his arms was not originally part of him. It was dark and made of metal, though it seemed to function as if it was made of his own flesh.

"Tell me." She says while reaching for her other piece of arm armor, "how long have you been fighting this war?"

He was obviously surprised by her question but humored her at first, "Well...I was taken prisoner by the Galra for a year. So I guess a year and a few months now."

She nods solemnly, "I've been in this since I was six," she says simply, "commander since I was 16. The day you've been fighting for as long as I have is the day you can tell me protection is never necessary."

She didn't sound rude about it. But she sounded matter-of-fact. Because she was right. She had been at war her entire life and she knew how bad it truly was. So he took no offense to her words and instead understood them.

"You make a good point," He says and nods his head, "may I walk you to dinner?"

She nods her head, "please do. I would get lost."

He smiles. It was the first non-serious thing she had said since they had met almost six hours ago. She pulls the last strap into place and turns to face him.

They walk out of the room together. And as they walked down the corridors, Shiro noticed how silent her footsteps were. If he wasn't right beside her, he wouldn't know she was even there. She had the steps of a trained hunter trying not to scare their prey. It made his own sound like a bull in a china shop.

They exchanged no words as they walked. And it wasn't like the comfortable silence when she walked with Harron in the mornings. This was a tense silence, disturbed every time Shiro put a foot on the ground.

Trip was almost relieved to find the dining hall. Allura had a seat open beside her and when she caught sight of Trip, she motioned to it. All of the paladins were present, as was a man with a large orange mustache.

"Greetings, commander," He says cheerily, "my name is Coran," he extends a hand to her from across the table, "I'm so glad you've agreed to see what Voltron can do."

"I appreciate the invitation," she says while taking his hand and firmly shaking it. She takes a seat, preparing to dread the meal she was going to have. Coran passed out bowls of green food goo, and Hunk immediately dug into it.

Trip has eaten some pretty weird things. On missions, her team would eat what they could find. And sometimes they were less than appetizing. So the green goo looked, and tasted, far better than some things she had eaten.

"So, commander," Allura began. Trip had been hoping for a few moments of peace before the questions would begin. But alas, the princess wanted answers as soon as she could get them, "where do you come from?"

All paladins' movements stopped. This is the question that would answer their suspicions. Had aliens been to earth before? Had they taken a human girl? Or was she up here for some far different reason? To not look like they were listening too hard, all of them began eating again. But their eyes flickered from their food to her. Except for Keith. His eyes remained on her as he waited for an answer.

"Your guess is as good as mine," She says nonchalantly, "I grew up in a Galra prison cell. Broken out when I was six."

Keith, seeing that she wasn't too bothered by this, pressed, "you don't remember anything about your home planet?"

She shakes her head, "no and I don't care to."

Her answer shocked everyone. Coran and Allura missed their home deeply. How could someone not even care to know where their home was? And the paladins, who were sure she shared the same planet as them, all were in disbelief that someone could not miss their home. Earth was beautiful in different ways to all of them. Even to Keith, who really had no one waiting for him there.

Changing the subject, Lance asked her another question, "how did you find the Olympians after breaking out?"

She eats a spoonful of goo to avoid answering for as long as possible. But it went down quickly and she was forced to give them something. Though she held back the most important bits.

"I was seeking refuge with others when we found Olympia. They were less...bloodthirsty then," She remembers how people were when she had arrived.

Yes, they were all still warriors. Yes, they were all still willing to mow down whoever it took to end Zarkon. But they had stronger morals then. Remembering how they had all acted when the paladins had first appeared, she almost felt nauseated.

"Forgive them for how they acted when you arrived," She apologizes, "the war has twisted their morals more than I like to admit," It's something she aimed to fix as their leader.

"I'd say it more than twisted them," Says Keith as he carefully eats his food, "they were pointing swords at our necks just for walking in."

Shiro and Allura throw him looks of warning. And everyone kind of expected Trip to defend her people. But she seemed to know that they were a group of a barbaric nature and let this comment slide.

Putting down her spoon, she begins to ask questions of her own. The paladins were the same as her. Species-wise, at least. So she repeated their question back to them.

"And where are you from, paladins?"

"We're all from Earth," Says Hunk, "from the galaxy garrison school."

She was interested when they had said school. But hid it well, "and what's that?"

"A hell-hole," Keith muttered to himself. But not quite enough to go unheard by the trained soldier. She ignored him, figuring he had muttered it for a reason.

Lance explained briefly what they were talking about, "it's a school that teaches teams how to go on missions to planets around the galaxy."

"So they sent Voltron?" She asks, believing this was just a mission sent out by them. Lance shakes his head.

"No no. They have no idea we're here." he grins mischievously "we're on our own top-secret mission to save the universe," He was obviously proud to have gone rogue from the school.

She doesn't say anything in return, taking in another spoon of food goo. She didn't care how they got here or how Voltron suddenly appeared after 10,000 years. She just cared if it was really all it was talked up to be by everyone who had heard the stories.

She didn't speak the rest of dinner. At least, not unless she was spoken directly to. And even then she kept the responses short and simple. The conversation was carried between paladins and their two friends, and eventually, they got that Trip was not a talkative soul and let her finish her food goo in her own silence.

She was grateful when everyone was finally done. The plates hovered themselves to the kitchen to be cleaned, and Trip watched that with a wrinkled brow in confusion. She found the longer she was in one room, the longer it got more and more confusing.

"We should head to bed," Says Allura, "you paladins will need the energy to show our guest what Voltron can do."

Everyone nodded solemnly and went in a group towards the hall of bedrooms. And Trip was left to walk there herself slowly. She could tell tonight would be a tough night to get any sleep. Everything that had happened in a matter of hours would be flying around her head all night. Not to mention she was leaving her people in the hands of Harron.

She trusted him, of course she did. She wouldn't have made him her second if she didn't. But he was very...reckless. Very anger-driven at times. And he couldn't help it. He was raised to be the perfect Olympian. Ruthless and very hard-headed. That's why he and Haylie worked so well. She was practically a saint. She hated violence and saw good in every soul she met. She evened him out. Trip would have felt more comfortable leaving with them in joint command. But she couldn't put that kind of stress on her when she was pregnant.

I suspect all the patience I've built will be destroyed when I get back, Trip thinks to herself, he'll let them fight out their arguments amongst each other.

As she approached her room, she knew sitting in there would be like torture. She had to move in some way. All the paladins were disappearing into their rooms, Keith sending her a blank look over his shoulder as she did the same. He didn't do a very good job of hiding his mistrust in her. But she didn't care. It's not like she was there to become best friends with all of them.

She was correct. Sleep was impossible.

Only two hours later, she was laying in her bed. And she felt like she would sink through it, it was so soft. She was used to being able to feel rocks through the blankets and barely having enough pillow to hold up her head. This luxury was making her physically uncomfortable now.

With her foot tapping against the cloud beneath her, she finally gave in. There had to be something to do to keep her mind busy until she was tired enough to not care about the bed.

Allura said something about a training deck, she retained, this high tech castle can surely impress me with training.

So she flung her legs off the bed, sitting up and reaching for the sword beside the foot of the it. And she walked completely silently through the halls in the direction of the dining hall. She recalled the training deck between there and her room. At least it was when Allura had pointed it out. So she retraced her steps to where she had been eating dinner a few hours earlier.

It was surprisingly easy to spot. There was a small glowing sign outside the door that illuminated the dim halls. It spelled out Training Deck for her. With her sword in her hand, she decided to see how well these paladins were trained.

As soon as her feet passed the threshold, the fluorescent lights lit up the large room.

It was as large as some of the battle arenas she remembered seeing as a kid. All that was missing was the screaming crowds and starved beasts. And it appeared...training equipment? Who has a training deck with no equipment?

When she scanned the walls she saw no doors where they could be storing it. She raised her sword, resting the flat of the blade against her shoulder in confusion.

"Awaiting training level command."

The monotone voice made Trip raise her sword and spin around with the tip pointed outwards in search of the owner of the voice. But no one was there. At least, no one she could see or hear. And her senses were very well trained. After she stood in silence with her sword raised a few moments longer, the voice spoke again.

"Awaiting training level command."

It dawned on her then. This voice was coming from...the room? Was the room talking?

When she thought about how high tech the ship was, this really shouldn't have surprised her the way it did. The plates moved by themselves and the shower had scented water. A room with AI was probably the lowest-tech they had.

She lowers the sword tip to touch the ground and she thought about how to speak to an entire room without sounding entirely nuts.

"Training level one." She says. It did ask for a level and she needed to see how hard these 'levels' would be.

The room came to life at her words. Almost literally. The lights got brighter, and a beam came down from the ceiling from an unknown source. It reached the floor, and she saw it begin to form into something. A solid something. With legs, and arms. She realized it was building...or maybe becoming, a robot. It was made of a white and gold metal, holding a long sword of the same colors. And in the center of its head was a round and metal eye of glowing blue.

This castle was beyond impressing, and she didn't have to hide it this time with no one around. She let out a laugh that bounced off the walls of the large room. Wait until Harron and Haylie hear about this.

As the beam finished forming the metal man, he raised his sword. Then his metal legs began propelling it towards Trip, who was still amazed at the capabilities of the castle.

She watched it's movements as it got closer and closer, realizing how human it looked when it moved. If you didn't stare at its head, of course.

He swung at her head, not taking into account that she might dodge it. With one easy swoop of her sword, the blade went clean through its torso. It shattered into holographic blue pieces like glass. It went down so easily that Haylie's unborn child could have beaten. And level two surely would be no better, Trip decided. She needed a challenge. Something to keep her loud mind busy.

"Training level 7." She bumped it up a considerable amount.

Another beam went down in the center of the room, making an exact copy of the robot she had just sliced through.

This one ran again, sword raised again. It was faster than the first, and she knew she didn't have time to dodge. So she raised her sword in front of her head, where it aimed to hit her. The metal hit iron, and she slid her sword down against the opposing one. Her handle hooked around its blade and dragged it down and away from her.

Its torso was exposed when its arm was flung to the side. She raised a bare foot, slamming it with a grunt into its chest. She watched it fly back with the sheer force she used. The second she saw it hit the ground, she gave it no time to push itself back up. She raised the sword over her head and flung it forward with deadly accuracy. And she lazily watched it go straight through the bot's head and pierce the floor under it.

It disintegrated into blue pieces into the air.

Still not challenging enough.

She approached her sword, pulling it out of the ground and turning her back to the center of the room.

"Training level twelve."

This time she didn't see the beam. Or the bot. She could only hear it and it's delicate rapid footsteps when it was ready to start the fight.

She closed her brown eyes, breathing deeply and listening to how close it was getting. A few seconds and it would be close enough to touch. She heard it's arm rising for an attack. She heard it's single eye going in and out of focus on her. And finally, she heard it right behind her.

Its sword swung through the air, making a hissing noise. She flung her upper body forward, feeling the blade scrape past the back of her head.

In the same motion, she raised her feet and her heel met the cold shoulder of the bot. Her weight pushed it forward.

It fell onto its stomach with a clang, and she landed flawlessly with one foot on the shoulder she hit and the other on the ground beside it. She had to hunch forward and bend her knees to catch herself, and in the same moment her feet hit the ground, she brought the sword down between where the shoulder blades would be on a living being.

That one also disappeared into blue.

Three down and she hadn't broken a sweat.

"Training level sixteen."


	6. Chapter 6

"Training level forty-five."

Keith heard the voice of the Olympian commander as he neared the training room. He always went to the training room early in the morning. He made a point of getting up before any of the other paladins did so he could train in the quiet of the castle.

He groaned when he realized that wouldn't be happening today. His footsteps slowed as he reached the training hall. There were other things he could do to train while ignoring her presence.

When he reached the door of the training deck he was shocked at the sight.

He had never reached past level twenty and here she was at forty-five. There wasn't just one bot, there were six. All going at her with speed and force of groomed Galra generals. And she was practically dancing through them. He couldn't stop watching her block multiple blades with her single one.

He didn't like her, but he couldn't deny her combat skill.

Her blade ran through the stomach of one bot, and into the chest of one she had knocked down. The two disintegrated and three were left.

One swung at her head, and he watched boredly, hoping they might spear her. But she evaded it by bowing backward. She grabbed it's wrist, pulling herself up and twisting it at an awkward angle. It's own sword dove into its gut.

She reached out her other arm, sword slicing across the middle of a bots head. Two more down. One more going at her. She gripped the blade as it came down on her, and she used it to lift herself up and drive her foot into its head. The force made it disappear with the other.

Her back was to him as she landed back on the ground. Blood streamed from her hand and onto the white floor from where she had gripped the blade.

"Do you plan on announcing yourself?" She asks as she slides the sword into the sheath on her back, "or do I have to do all the talking?"

She turned to face him, not a single drop of sweat on her forehead. She was barely even breathing heavy. He pushed himself off the wall, walking onto the deck as he tried to appear unimpressed by what he saw.

"Why are you here?" he asks rudely without reacting to her previous question.

"It's a training deck. Meant for everyone." She reaches her hands up smooth down her hair. Over her hours training, she had decided to pin up her hair to keep it from flying around and blocking her view of enemies. Now she had her blood tangled into the dark strands.

"No." He rolls his violet eyes, "why are you here?"

She understood his question the first time but found it unimportant to answer. He and everyone knew why she was there almost against her will.

Her brown eyes looked him over. He was the average height of guys their age but held a more hostile posture. He wasn't exactly scrawny, he had muscle, but not as defined as the warriors on Olympia. He wasn't in the uniform that she had seen him in earlier. He wore a black t-shirt and a pair of long black pants with a brown utility belt. He seemed...ordinary.

"To form an alliance," she says and turns her back to him once again.

"I don't believe that," he grunts, "if you wanted an alliance, why did you have to come on the ship to get it?"

"You ask a lot of questions, paladin." she makes her way to the far side of the room. She had dropped a few of her items that had found to be bothersome in battle. The dagger holster that she had around her legs restricted her movements and to this day she didn't know how commanders before her managed. That's why she had strewn it across the room while fighting.

Keith balls his hands into fists, "and I'm not getting any answers."

She sighs through her nose as she picks up the leather holster from the ground, "you were in the room when we made the deal." she says in irritation, "you know exactly why I'm here."

She began walking towards the door behind him, her face an emotionless slate, "No. I don't. Your barbaric friend was talking in a language none of us understood. For all we know--"

She grabbed the dagger from the holster she was holding. And when she got close enough to him, she held the blade sideways to his neck. He stopped talking but otherwise didn't act affected by her threat.

She pressed the blade harder against his neck, neither of them breaking the eye contact that was made. There was fire in both of their eyes that wouldn't be broken.

"Watch your tone of how you speak about my friends in front of me."

The first emotion she had shown to him, or any member of team Voltron, was unsurprisingly anger. But Harron was not barbaric. He may look the part and have a temper, but that was all. He was nothing like the rest of them.

"Next time, I won't just sit quietly at the dinner table." She hisses at him, almost drawing blood from his neck. But he glared right back at her as if it were only a toy she waved at him, "I'll show you how barbaric we can get."

His hand had been inching along his side until he was gripping his own dagger handle. He thought she hadn't noticed, but she knew. She just wasn't worried about a kid who barely knew how to fight with a kitchen knife.

He jerked the blade up, awaiting the sound of metal on metal. If he were to force her blade away, she would surely cut his throat by mistake. No matter if he made her angry, she didn't want to claim war on Voltron by killing one of their paladins. So she pulled her knife back before they could meet, calmly holding it by her side.

She proceeded to walk past him, assuming she got her message across in that short amount of time. When she passed him, she could feel the anger radiating off of him. Because he got no real answers. At least in his mind, he didn't.

"I don't trust you." He calls and turns around to watch her retreating figure, "not in an alliance and not on the training deck."

"Good."

Still running on no sleep and adrenalin from training, Trip was lead to the command room by Allura herself. The princess seemed determined to get on good terms with her.

As she was leading her down the halls to where they had come from the night before, Trip saw a few blobs of color begin bouncing on her shoulder closest to her.

"Oh yes." Allura's steps slowed and Trip looked over at her, seeing she was letting those colored blobs jump into her hands, "my friends wanted to meet you."

The blobs were mice. Four oddly colored mice, little colored paws waving at her from Allura's hands. Very intelligent mice who could greet people. She raised an eyebrow and cautiously lifted her own hand to wave back. How did Allura know a group of mice wanted to meet her? Was this team crazier than she had originally thought? Was she talking to them?

Sensing her confusion, Allura giggles, "me and the mice shared a cryopod for 10,000 years." she explains as the smallest mouse begins climbing up onto the biggest one, "now we share a kind of...mind link."

Whatever any of that meant.

Trip nodded her head as if she understood. Well, she understood that the princess hadn't bee around for the war as long as she had. But Trip could've guessed that herself. No one who knew how bad it was could smile over a couple of mice like that.

"I told them we had a guest on our ship and they've been bugging me about meeting you since." Allura giggles as she lifts the mice back to her shoulder and then proceeded to keep walking towards the command room. As if talking to mice was the most normal thing on the ship.

All of the paladins were already in the room, crowded around Pidge's chair and unaware that they had just walked in. Allura went to the front of the room and left Trip at the door, where two pedestals were standing with glowing blue pads on the top. The princess placed her hands on top of them, and in front of her rose a large transparent blue screen. With words in a language that Trip couldn't read.

She decided to see what the rest of the paladins were up to around the smallest of them. Hopefully something less confusing than what Allura had dancing across her screen. Approaching the back of the chair to see over the head of the youngest of them all, she saw the words going across the screen were similar to those of the ones on Allura's. So it seemed nothing would be making sense to her so as long as she was here.

"Find anything?" Shiro asks Pidge.

Pidge grunts, "I can only salvage bits and pieces." They were rapidly typing away on a keyboard, eyes glued to the screen in concentration.

Shiro didn't look pleased with this answer, none of them did. Trip didn't even know what was happening but it seemed that getting nothing was bad news.

"I'm cross-referencing Sendak's memories with the intel we got from the Galra prison," Pidge informs them all. Trip's mind halted.

Sendak's memories? The Galra general? His face flashed through her mind in dozens of different ways, none of them good. Her blood ran cold just thinking about him. The one man up as high on her shit list as Zarkon.

"How did you get Sendak's memories?" She asks suddenly, visualizing his face the last time they had met on one of his warships.

Pidge casts looks at her friends, wondering if she could be trusted to know how they had gotten them. Shiro saw no reason that she couldn't and spilled.

"He tried to take over the castle." He tells her. She looked at him to examine his expressions to tell if he's lying when he speaks, "but we stopped him, and put him in a pod to extract his memories."

Her heart sputtered while her face remained blank, "is...is he still here? In the castle?"

Shiro shamefully shook his head, "no." He says, "we...I ejected him when his crystal started infecting the castle itself."

"You sound like you know him," Keith says suspiciously to her right. She resisted the urge to roll her eyes, knowing what he was getting at. She crossed her arms, the metal clasps on her armor clinking together as she did so.

"Not in the way you'd like to believe." she says and looks over at him in irritation, "I'm the one who took out his eye."

All bodies in the room froze. Pidge's fingers, Lance's tapping foot, Shiro's twitching finger. And they all looked at her in disbelief. Lance even in admiration.

"No way." The Cuban gasps with a sparkle in his eye, "do you still have it?!"

Hunk groans, "oh I hope not."

Trip smirks, "it's on my throne in Olympia," it made a fine addition amongst the rest of the past commanders relics.

"Was it during an epic battle?" Lance goes on, "a fight to take over a ship?"

Far from it, Trip thinks to herself. She doesn't verbally answer him. She wasn't a fan of lying. She found it only caused more problems than it solved, so she chose to say nothing at all. Lance pushed the conversation aside in disappointment when she didn't keep it going.

Her arms tightened around herself slightly. Not enough to be noticed by anyone. At least she had hoped it wasn't. But Keith, who had been eyeing her movements, saw it the moment it happened. And it raised another red flag about her and her people. As if he didn't have enough in the air already. She was uncomfortable talking about a fight? He hadn't known her long but she seemed very proud of fighting skills and strength. A moment to brag didn't seem above her.

"Pidge, did you find anything when you cross-referenced?" Shiro asks and moves everyone's attention back to the screen, "anything at all?"

"Well, one thing kept popping up. Something called a Universal Station. With coordinates to a location." Pidge tells him, still typing away rapidly.

"Universal Station?" Asks Hunk for confirmation, "like a kind of station that controls the entire universe?"

Pidge pushes Hunk away, as he had been slowly leaning closer to her screen, "we're translating it from Galra so it could also be Intergalactic Hub."

Lance grins, "Or a space base."

This amused no one. And when he stopped smirking to himself and realized this, he shrugged, "what?"

Coran began typing away on the panel of blue and white buttons in front of him, "I'm putting in the coordinates of your Universal station...hub...base."

The window that had been overlooking the vast empty space in front of them was suddenly no longer a window. It was an entire computer screen. Zooming in on three planets, it seemed. And only three planets, nothing that screamed Galra base. At least not to Trip. She crossed her arms, unimpressed.

"Our long-range satellites aren't picking anything up." Says Coran as everyone stared it down from their positions. Like, if they stared long and hard enough then something they could use would magically appear.

"Maybe Sendak remembered it wrong?" Keith tried to reason, though it came out as an unconvincing question.

Pidge, however, had another theory, "or maybe we just stumbled onto a top-secret base in Sendak's memories."

That regained Trip's attention. Her people could never get their hands on the real top-secret stuff. Her soldiers killed first and didn't consider that they could get useful information out of the officers on the ships that they could locate. If this was true, maybe she could use this base as proof that they can make use of officers before cutting off their heads.

"Only one way to find out," Allura says, "let's go take a look."

Wormhole travel was not Trip's favorite way to get around the galaxy.

She realized this the second the ship was sucked into one of them. It made her insides feel like they were being squeezed into a space that was far too small for them. Even though it only lasted a few seconds, she grits her teeth and lets the discomfort run its course.

They did still have to travel a way to avoid being tracked. At least that's what Shiro explained to her without her even asking.

So, by the time they were actually close to the coordinates, Hunk was fast asleep and upside down in his chair, Shiro was staring at the screen Pidge was still working on, Keith was standing as far away as possible from her, while Lance was speaking to Allura with words unheard by Trip.

She herself was leaning against the entrance of the control room, wondering if they would ever arrive at their destination.

"We should be close enough to get a good scan." Allura's voice shocked Hunk from his sleep. His legs fell forward, over his head. And he tumbled onto the ground with a thud, "but far enough to away to avoid being noticed." he scrambled to his feet sheepishly.

Trip pushed herself off of the doorway to the room and stepped farther inside to get a clear look at what everyone was bringing their focus to. The planets that were thousands of miles away and on a screen before were now right in front of them. And the ship was slowly rounding the side of the largest one.

Much to the commander's surprise, the smallest one had been right. There, on a mass of floating rock in the center of the three planets, was a base of deep green. But surrounding it was ships that were obviously Galra. And they weren't shooting at them, so Trip assumed they were indeed undetected as of right now.

"There it is." Says Shiro.

The closer they got, the bigger Trip realized the base was. It was obviously not a ship in itself. One of that size would move much too slow for Zarkon's liking. It was just a base with a purpose unknown to them.

"How has it stayed hidden?" Trip asks, "a base this size, even my people would know of it."

It was almost big enough to be a planet on its own if it had a gravitational pull. Coran had the answer to her question a second later.

"It seems the gravitational pull of two of the planets warped the electronic transmission enough for it to stay hidden from any scanners." He described in awe. Trip sighed through her nose, not understanding what that meant. And asking any more questions would confuse her further. All of their high-tech speak was plucking at her nerves.

"So you can only see it if you really know where to look," Pidge remarks. This made more sense to Trip, and she made note that she liked the younger one better than the mustached one.

Another ship was approaching it, one of Galra. And it was docking itself onto a part of the oversized base. Just as another one was leaving. Shipments maybe? Of weapons? Supplies?

"It looks like it handles shipments from all over the Galra Empire," Shiro says.

Trip stares at it through the window, "it cant just be that." she speaks her opinion on the place for the first time since finding its coordinates, "it's too hidden. It has to be what they're transporting that's so important it has to be hidden this well."

If her people had something important to be carried from one place to another, damn right she would take all precautions so they could manage to get it there with no one stopping them. So whatever it was Zarkon didn't want anyone else's hands on had to be the very lifeblood of his empire.

Shiro nods, "Trip is right. There's gotta be more than we're seeing."

Allura had taken her hands off of the blue pads beside her. And as soon as she put them back on, their view of the station was blocked by a transparent model of it.

"We'll have to take a closer look." She says as the model spins around on the screen, "we can enter through here. The central control building." it lit up on the top to show them where she meant.

Keith was the one who caught on to what she had said first and turns his head to face the princess of Altea, "I'm sorry, princess. Did you say we?"

Allura removed her hands from the pads, the diagram disappearing off of the screen. She looked at him with an innocent expression, "Me and the commander will be going with you."

It was as if everyone in the room, minus Trip, had a small stroke at her statement, "I've traveled through Galra transportation hubs with my father before the war," she explains her reasoning, "I know them better than any of you. And according to the training deck log, Trip's combat skills will come in very handy."

Trip crosses her arms, silently wondering if the princess had also known about her and Keith in the training deck this morning. She knew how she had fought, did she know that at this point that Trip would rather take on Zarkon himself than go on a mission with someone she didn't trust? No matter how many others were on it with them. Out of the corner of her eye, Keith's tensing figure gave away that he felt the same way.

Coran took steps away from his control panel and closer to Allura, "princess, I'd rather you stay here," he says with a nod of his head.

Allura's voice became stern, one of a leader with their mind set on something, "I'm as much a part of this fight as all of you." she scans her eyes across the room to challenge anyone who had something to say, "I'm going. Does anyone have a problem with that?"

All paladins slowly turned their eyes to Shiro. It was obvious he had the voice in their arguments against the princess. He shrugged his shoulders.

"Fine." He says with no arguments, "suit up."

Allura beamed and turned her front towards Trip, "wonderful. Commander, grab anything you might need for a fight.


	7. Chapter 7

The space suit and helmet Trip had to wear felt terribly uncomfortable and claustrophobic. And she certainly wasn't a fan of how constricting it was to her movements. The only part of her uniform that didn't piss her off was the fact that her long sword could still be placed on her back.

She stood in the cockpit of the green lion with the other paladins and Allura. It was the only lion with cloaking, apparently added by Pidge herself in one of her moments of boredom.

While all the paladins crowded the front to see where they were going, Trip stayed in the back to have her personal space. Though she looked very undisturbed by flying in a giant robotic lion of legend, she was very uncomfortable with her whole situation. Especially going into a Galra base with little to no backup and with no one she even trusted. But, there was no doubt that she could handle whatever was thrown at her.

"We're out of sight" Shiro informs everyone, "now we just have to stay that way until we're in the control room."

Trip flexed in an attempt to loosen the suit against her skin as everyone began filing out of the lion. If a fight did break out, she didn't want the stupid suit to be what gets her killed. Lack of flexibility isn't a way for a Heda to die.

It was a long series of ducking behind rocks and moving crates to get inside. All in all, Trip thought it was too damn easy to get into the main control area for a base hidden this well. But she didn't voice her concerns, she just opened her eyes wider and turned her head at every sound.

The door to the needed room came into view. They knew that was it because of the map Allura had shown them while in the castle.

"We need a plan to get them out," Shiro whispers to them all, "something that doesn't draw attention to us."

The group of oddly covered heroes was against the wall of a dead end, just around the corner from their goal room. The lights in the purple lit halls didn't quite reach them, leaving them out of sight to anyone who happened to walk by.

Lance brings up an idea to get inside, "okay, so listen," he begins excitedly, "Pidge, you blow something up-"

"I said something that doesn't attract attention to us." Shiro sighs in irritation, "we need a real plan."

Trip watches as an unsuspecting Galra starts around the corner, going towards the room they needed in. He didn't see them, even though Lance had yet to learn to whisper. She silently steps around all of the paladins, creeping her head around the corner in time to see the door open to his handprint, and that there were two centries inside.

She glanced back to make sure no one was coming behind him. Upon knowing the coast was clear, she glanced back at the paladins. They were all looking at each other and discussing plans that wouldn't have a shot at working. They were missing a perfect chance. She resisted the urge to roll their eyes. These 'defenders of the universe' had so much to learn.

Crouched and silent, Trip whizzes down the hall and through the doors right before they close. Her normal uniform may have been too bulky to get through it with all the armor on it. There seemed to be one upside to the white suit she wore.

She crept up behind the Galra as he looked around at the screens in front of him at all the red writing she couldn't make out.

"Interference clearing in three...two...one." He yawns in boredom.

His guard was down. Obviously, nothing interesting happened on this base, or he would know to always be ready for an attack.

It must be nice to not have to worry, Trip thinks to herself, he has no idea what his kind has done to millions of people.

She stands up slightly, but not all the way so the centries wouldn't see her, "hey."

He turns around at the unfamiliar voice, not expecting anything violent. He had just barely caught sight of the angry looking teenager before her elbow harshly slammed against his neck. Right beside his Adam's apple was a pressure point that was dangerous to aim for. Arteries could tear or burst if hit wrong, but Trip had done it so many times before during fights and training that it was easy for her to hit without killing.

The Galra toppled backward instantly, lights out, his hands falling short of reaching for his throat. He hit the panel behind him, notifying the centries that something was wrong when they heard the thump of his body falling.

Not giving their mechanical minds time to process what was happening, Trip ripped the sword from its sheath behind her head, standing upright. She slammed her foot on the panel the Galra had fallen on, hurling her body weight forward and jumping over it. Her sword, which had been raised above her head as she jumped, came down on the centry closest to her.

It's head split on the blade, sparks flying from the wires that were severed on impact. Without blinking, Trip turned her sword inside of its head so it was stuck on the blade. With another sweep to her left, the body was flung towards the other centry as it ran towards her. She turned her sword last minute so the body could fly at it freely.

It hit the wall with force, knocking its circuits loose and denting the back of its metal skull. Watching it for a second to make sure it didn't get back up, Trip then carefully slid her sword back into its rightful spot on her back.

The door opened one more time, this time her supposed allies coming through. They had been ready for a fight. All of their weapons had been out, and Allura had been trailing behind. But to their shock, there stood Trip with the three bodies around her and staring at them.

"Commander." Shiro says in surprise, "we didn't even notice you were..." he didn't finish his sentence, not wanting to take a chance at offending her. He glances at the body of the living Galra soldier, wondering if he was dead.

He wouldn't care if he was, but still. There was no blood.

"He's alive." Trip says when she follows the leaders gaze, "just unconscious. He will be for about an hour."

The Galra was shoved to the side as everyone crouched down to their respective jobs. Pidge was fidgeting with Shiro's arm, apparently using it to break into the tech and download info. And like in the lion, Trip stayed in the back of the room to keep to herself.

Pidge's computer had a picture of her face on it, connecting two boxes.

"Me and Hunk have made some improvements since we last downloaded Galra info." She explains while rapidly typing away, "we should get a clean translation immediately."

Hunk nods while opening some hatches under the console and plucking some wires, "this shouldn't take long" He insists.

Keith, speaking for the first time since they had entered the room, says, "guys. I hate to interrupt but we got company."

There was a shadow beginning to loom over the entire base. It was creeping over the window slowly, and when Trip approached she could see that it was another Galra ship. This one was huge, glowing purple like the many she had seen before it. But, unlike the ones she had seen before, it made no violent approach. No firing weapons and not releasing an army. It was peaceful to its own kind. As it began to lower onto the empty platform just in front of the window, she kept hidden along with the rest of team Voltron.

"Think we should get out of here?" Asks Keith. After all, their plan was to remain undetected and avoid a fight.

Pidge protested without looking up from her computer, "we only need a few more seconds."

Trip edged away from the window, back towards the group to see what kind of progress had been made.

"Just stay low." Shiro commands, "we need this intel."

Just as he finished his sentence, the console above all of their heads began beeping and blinking red. A screen lined in red appeared holographically, and everyone dove in different directions to remain unseen when another Galra's face showed up on the screen.

"Huh?" He was confused when he saw no one in the room, but he didn't move. He just...stared. Waiting for something.

Trip had ducked behind the desk, so if she craned her head up and lengthened her neck, she could barely see him but he couldn't see her. She watched him stare into the empty room for a few seconds longer.

"He's not moving," she whispers to the Paladins, "I think he's waiting for a signal."

Hunk grabbed the arm of the dead centry, "I got it."

And he shoved it up into what looked like a standing position from the waist up, but the feet were a splayed mess held up by him. He grabbed its elbows and began making multiple signs that no one really understood. He held up its thumb, hoping it would work and that he had cracked some secret Galra code no one knew existed.

With no words exchanged, the Galra on the screen held up his hand and then phased out. Everyone relaxed, standing up again.

Lance chuckled, "nice job, Hunk." he says and lifts up his hand

The yellow paladin laughs, "thanks." he uses the centry hand to smack Lance's.

"Information downloaded," Pidge announces while unhooking her laptop from the wires Hunk had pulled earlier.

"Anything?" Shiro asks while everyone looks at her expectantly. She begins tapping on the keys again, eyes scanning over the paragraphs that Trip could see from behind her.

The youngest among them groans, "nothing," She says, "this place has no useful information at all. Just a schedule of all the ships."

"Then we should head back." Trip says, "this can only go sideways from here."

Everyone reluctantly agreed. They had all been hoping to get some table-turning information that would make the war so much easier to win.

"Wait." Allura says, "do you know where that ship is going Pidge?" She asks and motions to one still looming outside that they had just signaled down.

Pidge looks at her screen briefly, "it'll be here for half an hour and then it's going to Central Command."

Allura nods as if she had just made her mind on something, "then that's the ship that has the information we need." she says, "and I'm going to sneak on and get it for us."

Trip was starting to get the idea that this team had no say in what the princess did at all. She seemed to run on her own accord with her own rules. And it irked the commander to no end. She was practically a rogue soldier that would get them all killed. Maybe she was overestimating herself, or maybe she really could get the info they needed by herself. But she had just made the decision herself with no input from the rest of her team.

"What?" Lance asks, "no way."

"How are you suppose to get in?" Keith brought up.

The ship was crawling with Galra loading boxes in and out of it, so getting inside without getting hurt in some way was nearly impossible.

The princess smiled at his question, reaching up to pull off her helmet, "I'm going to walk in the front."

She closes her blue eyes, concentration on her face. Her dark skin begins to lighten, morphing from its deep tan until its the same shade of purple as the Galra they fight every day.

Trip's expression of irritation morphs into one of curiosity as she watches the princess' legs and torso grow in length until she towered above even Shiro. There was silence among them all that was short-lived before questions came pooling out of three of them.

"How did you do that?" Was the first one asked by Hunk.

Allura smiles down at them all, "Alteans are chameleon-like people," she explains, "we can blend in with most species."

Questions were pooling from everyone's mouths almost. This obviously wasn't something humans could do on Earth.

"So can you turn into a balloon?"

"Can you be multiple colors at once?"

"Won't your clothes rip?"

The princess of chameleon people answered the questions calmly, "no, just one at a time, and I will need a change of clothes."

Trip points towards the knocked-out Galra who was still on the floor, all eyes following her, "you can use his uniform."

Allura grins, "you're right, Trip." she begins walking towards him when Shiro cuts her off.

"I can't let you go in there alone," he says sternly like he was scolding her.

She narrows her eyes and turns back to look at him. Tension filled the air between them, catching Trip and the other paladins in the middle of it, "excuse me? I don't need your permission." she snaps.

All eyes turned to Shiro in anticipation of his response. He walked towards her as he spoke, "it's too dangerous. I'm going in with you, no questions."

Again, this team had a few communication problems. Trip could sense an argument about to rise, which was the last thing they needed when trying to remain hidden on a base full of Galra soldiers.

"You'll stick out like a Choferiak's nose." The princess quips,

Pidge comes to Shiro's defense by grabbing his hand and holding it up in the air, "but you'll need that nose, princess." she says and waves his hand, "Shiro's arm is the only thing we have to relay information."

Shiro nodded and looked up at her towering form in triumph as she said, "fine, you can come. But we need to hurry before that ship leaves."

Trip brings up another problem that didn't seem to want to be addressed, "how do you plan on getting Shiro on?" she asks, "we don't have another Galra uniform."

They stuffed the leader of Voltron in a box and put the princess in a metal suit. That was their fool-proof plan. And Trip could count all the ways it could go wrong in her head.

All of them but Pidge, who still stared her computer screen, were watching their comrade's figures from the window. Allura walked past the two guards seemingly calmly and disappeared inside the ship.

"They made it," Lance announces to everyone in the room.

Now that they couldn't see Shiro and Allura anymore their attention was drawn to something else below them. Centries everywhere were carrying large containers full of something glowing yellow. Lines of them with gallons of the stuff. It's all that was coming off the ship.

"What do you think is in those?" Keith asks no one in particular.

Hunk answered honestly, "well I suspect it's sporks."

Trip scrunched her eyebrows and looks at him in confusion. What was a spork? Lance and Keith looked at him in the same way, to which he took as a sign to defend his argument.

"This is an advanced race. Surely they know it's stupid to have a fork and a spoon when one tool will sufficiently do the job," he smiled proudly as he finished his declaration. Everyone turned back to the window with no words against him.

"I don't think its...sporks." Trip says with a head shake, "but it's been on every Galra ship I've been on. It's important to them."

They had raided Galra ships before, and she had seen those same containers. But it was never important enough to break them and try and see what was in it. Maybe it was just extra fuel or rations.

Pidge spoke from behind them before Keith could say whatever smart remark he could think of, "maybe this guy'll tell us."

When everyone turned around, she had the centry Trip had taken down (without mutilating it) hooked up to wires on its head and leaning against a desk.

"What is being transported here?" She asks it loudly and clearly.

"Interrogation detected." The centry smokes slightly from its head, "shutting down."

Pidge grumbled in irritation, leaning closer to her laptop and typing faster. She was practically glued to that thing is what Trip had learned. You didn't get one without getting the other.

The commander turned her eyes back down to the ground where the glowing containers were. The last two centries carrying some in the line had been stopped, and a tall hooded figure was standing in front of them, probably talking but not heard by them.

"I'm gonna go check it out," Keith says and is turning away from the window before anyone can tell him to stop.

Lance spoke as he walked by him, "how about we just lay low and you don't blow our cover?"

Keith ignored him, opening the main doors and hurrying out. Trip rolled her eyes and crossed her arms over her chest.

"You guys have some communication issues," she voices and bends forward to lean against the desk and stare down over the base.

The team was split up and seemed to be barely functioning, things were getting boring just standing around, and Trip's neck was beginning to itch from the stupid suit she had to wear. Their task to prove that they could end the war wasn't doing well in the slightest.


	8. Chapter 8

Hours is what it felt like, minutes is what it was.

Trip is not used to being on the sidelines of any mission. It was unnerving but also relaxing. The whole thing wasn't depending on her for a change. She stood against the closed metal doors at the back of the room, her shoulders relaxed but her foot bouncing on the toes.

In the front of the room were the other paladins. Pidge and Hunk, who Trip had deemed the brains of the group, were still messing around with the dead centry. Hunk had been told to stop messing with it, so now he was just tapping together two sensors and making its hands move. It had been entertaining at first, something to keep minds busy, but now it was old and something to keep just him busy.

"It's been a while." Says Lance, "you think they're all okay?"

There was no immediate answer. Trip was getting antsy because there was a chance that they weren't all okay. If the paladins of Voltron died, then there was no hope of ending this war for another 10,000 years.

"I think we would've gotten some kind of signal if they were in trouble," Pidge says, "or there would be more alarms going off if they were caught."

She wasn't wrong. Red lights, alarms, the whole thing. The Galra were very big on being obvious when something threatened their rule. They did not like being challenged, especially on their own turf. So they would make a big deal about taking down the threat.

More minutes passed and Trip grew more anxious as they did. Not only would Harron have her head if she let the paladins die, but Hayley would probably go into stress-induced labor. Finally, she had enough of waiting around on one of the expeditions to report back.

She stands up and turns to the door, hitting the button on the side of that triggered it to open.

"Don't wait up," she says simply before disappearing beyond anyone's view. As she hid behind corners and slinked past guards, she decided that helping Allura and Shiro would be much more difficult and dangerous. And while she wasn't opposed to difficult and dangerous, she felt as if they were the ones who were safe and on track.

It's the red paladin, who had proved to be hot-headed and impulsive, that she figured would need help. If she were to make herself useful in the ways she can, her best bet is making sure he hadn't ruined anything or gotten himself killed.

To find out where he went, all she had to do was follow the trail of dead centries. She stayed out of sight, something she felt he hadn't bothered to do, but she was beginning to think that this 'stealth' mission wasn't going to end very stealthily.

Trip found herself walking down a long hallway, a golden glow coming from the end room. She knew that whatever it was, there was a lot of it.

Suddenly, a loud crash came from in the room as she approached the archway inside. Crunching of glass and metal creaking was deafeningly loud.

Trip ran, reaching for her sword. She held it up, ready to fight whoever was waiting for her on the other side.

"Pidge, I need an extraction now!" Keith's voice was heard as soon as she broke into the room. He was obviously in the same vicinity as her but she couldn't see him. She followed the sound of his voice.

The room was full of shelves and shelves of the golden stuff. They had an abundance of it, so it had to be important. When she scanned the walls covered in it, she saw Keith up high on one of them. He had been thrown into a container, busting it open and now hurt. And looming over him was a cloaked figure, a mask covering their face.

She knew them on sight; one of Haggar's henchmen. Whether or not they were beings with their own mind, Trip didn't know or even care to find out. They had been a thorn in the rebellion's side everytime they were unfortunate enough to run into each other. Having one of their robes on her throne seemed like the perfect thing to take away from this mission.

From her place on the ground, Trip reared back her sword. The cloaked figure was firing up their magical weapon of choice; purple lightning. And with Keith so close them while being the target, he would be dead on impact.

"Hey, ninnyhammer!" she threw her sword by the hilt, watching it spin in a perfect line towards its target.

The figure turned its head quickly but wasn't quick enough to disappear from harms way. The sword impaled directly into its shoulder, getting stuck with the handle in the air and the blade too far in to be pulled out. Blood didn't spill from the wound, but what looked like black energy did. It was waving around the sword like hands trying to reach for help. The figure stumbled back, not expecting to have been hurt so early in the battle.

The mask looked down at its injury, and then down in the direction of Trip. Its eerie blank expression didn't make a single shiver go down her spine. She had fought these things before, and while both sides left injured, she knew she could at least hold them long enough for the extraction to get there.

Keith took the things distraction as an opportunity to pull himself out of the golden pool he had been lying in when the container broke. The thing didn't acknowledge his movement.

"Yeah, remember me?!" She shouts up at it, "come on you mindless cretin!"

It disappeared in a wisp of black smoke, Trip's sword falling to the floor. She spun around, knowing that it could reappear at any moment and in any place. It was easier to face them in teams, but Keith would probably let her die before coming to her aid.

The black smoke before forming behind her, and she heard it. It sounded like sand running down against paper. Following it was the sound of sparks. She heard these things in the timespan of half a second, and she moved even faster. Diving out of the way and rolling on her left arm, purple lightning struck where she had been. And her friend was right in front of where her body would be.

"Your aim is just as bad as the last time," Trip taunts while turning around to face them. Their wound still leaked the dark energy, giving away that they didn't heal as fast as the average Galra did, "care to try again?"

Another split second warning of the sound of sparks and Trip bent into a backward handspring. She flung herself out of the way, the heat of the electricity fanning over her face as she did so.

She smirked, "I'm sure Haggar thinks you can do better than that, but can you?"

These things hated being taunted. She and Haylie both knew that. It angered them. And, like any living being when angered, they became reckless and desperate to just hit them. This created openings for them to be hit.

Another strike of lightning goes her way, and this time Trip doesn't move back. She dives forward in a tuck and roll. Once she's in front of the angry being, who's too blind in rage to process where she had gone when dodging this time, she slams her elbow into its side with both knees bent so she's low enough to avoid their arms when they reach for her.

They double over for a split second in pain. So they also had natural reactions to pain. they realized that it gave her an opening. But before they could shoot any more lightning at her at that moment, Trip was using her other arms to swipe at their knees from the front. Not thinking that she would go for the legs, but for their torso, the being was caught off guard.

The force sent their legs in the air and force them down on their back.

"Hey, Trip!" Keith shouts. He had scrambled around while still up on the ledge and had found her sword.

She looks up at him as he throws her sword towards her. She catches it midair by the hilt. In the same motion, she spins and brings down the blade. But at the last second, right before it would've impaled where its heard should be, the figure disappeared from the ground in black smoke.

The blade stopped a centimeter from the cement, avoiding hurting the sharp metal.

She looked up and searched for the figure, listening closely for the warning sounds. But she when she did hear it, it wasn't anywhere near her. Apparently, it wanted to take care of the less involved threat before dealing with her.

"Keith!" She shouts as a warning. He had been looking down at her to search for the thing as well, but he hadn't been paying attention to his own surroundings, "behind you!"

He wasn't as fast as Trip, obviously. And although he was quick, not enough so to be able to catch the being in time to get away. He managed to turn on his jetpack, though, but not get away. The purple lightning struck him in the torso. And although one shot wouldn't kill someone, it still hurt like a bitch.

"Damn," Trip mutters. She looks away from him and the being to find a way up. There were conveyor belts all over the walls. Going up, going down, going to the sides. She jumped on to one going up and began weaving her way around the containers and the belts to get up to them as fast as possible. She could hear the strikes of lightning and the sputtering of his jetpack, but that didn't mean he was avoiding every hit.

No way in hell was she going to be held responsible for the death of a paladin of Voltron. That was not something she wanted on her reputation.

She reached the level Keith and the being were on in record time, her sword still in hand. She pushed her legs to run as fast as she could when she spotted the situation he had gotten himself in. Pinned against a container of golden liquid, jetpack nearly dead, and about to be shot down.

He just had to find out what was in this room. He couldn't have asked someone to go with him. He had to be the lone soldier.

Irritation towards the paladin flooded Trip's mind as she got a clear shot towards the being. This team had a lot to learn.

She pushed herself forward when she was close enough, her feet leaving the ground and finding a home on the same side of the being she had elbowed seconds ago. Its shot of lightning was let off prematurely and in the wrong direction. It hit a load of gold containers, shattering them and making the liquid flood that area of the lower shelf.

The being collapsed onto the ground, growing angrier by the second at her mere existence. Her sword came down seconds after her foot. She didn't aim to kill. No, she wanted to keep it alive. Whether it was for it to suffer, or to get information, it was all the same. So she dove the sword into its arm again.

She had never heard them utter any words. It was like they had no vocal cords. But the scream it let out when the blade went all the way through its arm was anything but human. It wasn't even alien. It was so loud and high pitched, she was shocked all the glass in one room stayed intact.

It squirmed, using its other hand to claw at the forearm being pinned to the ground. Trip remained emotionless, staring at it for a second longer.

She knew what it was now.

She opened her mouth to ask it something, now that she knew it had a consciousness and free will. Or at least did at one point. But before she could get any words into the air, the ship began to rumble.

She looked away from it, and up from where the rumbling was originating from.

The ceiling crumbled apart, chunks falling to the ground and containers being shattered by them. The green lion came zooming in from the whole it created, crashing its giant feet into the ground behind the container Keith had been pinned against.

Its giant mouth opened towards them, "hurry!" Pidge says from the speaker in the lion, "we have to get Shiro and Allura!"

Trip looks back, shocked to find that it was still there. It must be in shock, if it was even capable of feeling that still. It had its mask turned towards the lion, looking at it blankly. She scowls at its covered face, twisting the sword in its arm to cause more damage before yanking it up. It let out a banshee-like scream again at the pain.

She runs down the belt that they were all on, following Keith into the mouth of the green lion.

The lion closed its mouth and jumped back into the vastness of space to find the princess and the leader of Voltron. Her sword slid back into its sheath.

Trip began her walk to the cockpit to find out what was going on, while Keith trailed far behind. His eyes were trained on his hand, where his suit had ripped and left his skin uncovered. He examined the burns that the quintessence had left on him. And right before his eyes, the burns began disappearing.

Thankfully for him, Trip was too far ahead to see it. She didn't know what that stuff did to human skin, but she could gather that it would leave a burn for longer than a few minutes.

He ended up in the cockpit after Trip arrived. She was aware now that Shiro and Allura had been compromised. And while they had gotten the information, now they were trying to get to an escape pod on the inside of the Galra ship. Everyone was rambling on and on, telling Pidge to hurry and worrying out loud about their leaders. But Trip remained silent.

I could've killed that thing, she snaps at herself, I should've killed it. One less monkey Haggar can control.

Someone clearing their throat brings her attention away from her scolding thoughts and the ground. Keith was looking at her with no emotion and his arms crossed.

"Thanks," he says it as if the single word burned his throat to say to her specifically.

She nods once, moving her eyes back to the ground before her, not interested in an insincere word.

Keith wasn't known for his way with words, so he left it there and went to the front of the cockpit to be with the other paladins. But he did find his hate for the commander had been knocked down many notches, though he still didn't trust her in the full-on war yet. So, she had his back this once. It seemed like she had some beef with those things, anyway. He was probably just in the way of her revenge.

"There!" Lance points out ahead of them, where a Galra escape pod was floating towards them. The commander glances up only briefly to see what everyone was looking at.

The green Lion caught the pod in a hatch in its stomach. The thud it made shook the whole lion and the people inside of it. Everyone awaited Shiro and Allura's return, excited to discuss and examine the intel that they had gathered.

But when the door opened, only one person stepped in. Shiro had his eyes on the ground, shoulders slumped in defeat. He looked unharmed, but an injury wasn't what was bothering anyone. It was the lack of the Altean princess.

All eyes went behind him, hoping she was just a few steps behind. But she wasn't there.

"Where's Allura?" Asks Keith.

Everyone, even Trip, stared at the black paladin. And while they all hoped that maybe she was just on a different pod, or maybe her seatbelt was stuck and she needed help getting out, Trip knew what happened. And she knew how hard it was to admit it.

His lack of vocal response worried everyone else further, "Shiro?" Lance said.

Shiro refused to look any of them in the eye, instead keeping his head down, "she sacrificed herself to save me." He says, "they took her."

Everyone began launching into questions, "she's still on the ship?" Keith asks, "the ship headed for Zarkon's central command? The place that's too dangerous for us to attack?"

Shiro looks at all of the paladins finally, eyes full of determination, "it doesn't matter how dangerous it is," he says firmly, "we're going to save Allura."

Hunk anxiously began speaking up, "but you said attacking that place would be the dumbest possible thing we could ever do."

Trip agreed there. She and her people did some dumb things. They had attacked Galra camps with 500 people staying there and only 200 of their own people. They raided their ships and sent them back to command with the corpses still on board. But not even they would attack Zarkon's base directly. It's not just dumb, its suicide.

Shiro looked back down at the ground, "I know. But now we don't have a choice."

The lion began flying again, in the direction of the castle. They had to rest up before they did the dumbest mission of their lives.

"Commander." Shiro looked up at her, his eyes still determined, "I know this isn't what you agreed to when you came up here with us." He says to her as all eyes pretended to be on the ongoing emptiness in front of them, "but we could use your help. I won't ask for your army right now, this is too dangerous to walk in so unprepared. But we could use your help."

Voltron right now obviously had some communication issues, but all of their hearts were in the right place. Even Allura's. They wanted this war to end, and they wanted all of their friends to be alive to see it. Trip wanted the same thing. There were so many ways that this could go wrong, and they probably would, but it was all in the hopes of getting a friend back alive and well.

Hailey would hate her for this. If the pink girl knew what she was about to agree to, Trip would stand a better chance against Zarkon. But even though she would be angry, she would also understand.

"Okay," said Trip, "I'll help."


	9. Chapter 9

The doors to the command center opened, allowing all of the paladins and Trip to flood into the room. The whole way to the castle had been silent, but now Shiro began to throw out orders faster than they could follow them.

"Pidge, get into the data and find out where Zarkon's central command is."

"On it."

"Keith, Lance, Hunk, make sure the lions are ready to go as soon as we get there."

They all nod and are prepared to run to wherever the lions are kept. But Coran stopped them before their orders could be executed.

"Where's Allura?" His eyes scan around the door to see if he had simply missed her. But when he confirmed that she was gone, he settled his eyes on Shiro. Trip remained by the black paladin's side.

When people got news that someone they loved was gone, they reacted unpredictably. Some got angry, some didn't believe them. Trip had even seen people shut down entirely. But she got the feeling that Shiro couldn't bring himself to fight back if his friend was the kind who got angry. She, however, had no problem fighting back for him.

Shiro looks down as he speaks, "they took her," he says, "she sacrificed herself to save me. I didn't have a choice in the matter."

Coran's blue eyes got wider with every word spoken to him. They settled in size when he realized Shiro wasn't going say 'but...' and explain that she was okay.

"How is that possible?" He demands, "how did you not have a choice?!"

Shiro sighs, "Coran, I'm sorry that things didn't go as planned. But instead of focusing on what went wrong, let's focus on how to make things right."

Everyone watched in dead silence at the interaction. Well, except for Pidge. She was very busy typing away on her computer.

"Pidge, anything?" Shiro asks to turn attention away from the fact that the princess is in life-threatening danger. All attention leaves the black paladin and Coran to turn the youngest, and admittedly the smartest, in the room.

"Look at this." She says and swipes up on her screen. The images transferred to the big screen that Allura usually controlled.

The huddled group of paladins and company were then stood in the back of the room, frozen. They knew something grand and extreme would be the base of Zarkon himself, but this was far beyond the size they expected. On the screen was a scale image. It was huge. Far bigger than the castle that they stood in now. And far bigger than any ship Trip had ever been aboard, and she had been on ones that put their planet to shame.

"Look at the size of that thing," Coran says softly.

"I think we should go in right away," Pidge announces, "the longer we sit here, the more danger Allura could be in."

Trip stared at the images longer, the commander side of her mind reeling in every situation that they could end up in if they flew in with no plan.

"I agree." Lance's words fly right over her head, "we form Voltron, fly in, take Allura, fly out, then dust off our hands."

"I don't know..." Hunk trails off and looks at the blue paladin in worry, "remember the Balmara? We could barely take out one fleet." he tossed an unsure look to Trip from the corner of his eye. He obviously didn't want to risk their alliance if she knew that they couldn't handle it, but it was the truth, "a ship this size could hold a thousand fleets."

Keith crossed his arms from off to the side of the group, "or maybe we just shouldn't go at all."

That sentence pulled Trip from her commander mode, and she gave him an exaggerated glare. Everyone was shocked by him.

When he notices all eyes on him in disbelief he begins to explain his reasoning, "think about it. We'll be handing the biggest weapon in the universe right to Zarkon."

The shocked eyes of his friends faded into those of disappointment, "that's cold man, even for you." Lance sighs.

Trip wouldn't leave his ridiculous idea at that. She was obviously important to everyone in the castle, and not just because she was the only one who could fly it.

In Olympia, while they were proven to be ruthless and supposedly heartless, they valued each other. Every soldier that Trip commanded had lost someone to the Galra Empire, so they had all learned to value every one they cared about after that loss. These people in the room, for the most part, seemed to have not yet had their heart ripped their chest because their friend was lying dead in front of them. And Trip would not deserve the term Heda if she stood by and let it happen.

"Have you never cared for anyone?" She asks angrily at his remark, "have you never loved someone enough to fight for them?"

He turns his eyes towards her, having almost forgotten she was there. She was usually quiet during their debates.

He glares right back at her with as much fury as she, his hand clenching his Bayard by his side, "risking the lives of thousands of people depending on Voltron for one person is stupid all around! As a commander, I thought you'd understand that!"

Trip took a step forward. No intentions of harming him, but just getting close enough for him to see that she took every life very seriously. Everyone sucked in a breath and prepared to stop a fight, but Shiro reached his Galra-made arm between them, holding her back from taking another step forward.

"Commander." He turns her attention away from Keith. His friend was hot-headed and if he initiated a fight, it's not one he would win, "you're an experienced leader?"

He phrased it like a question, confusing her. She didn't get the name Heda from growing herbs. He thought she sat on a throne decorated in bloody armor for fun?

"What does that have to do with anything?" She asks with one last glare at Keith.

The black paladin nods towards the front of the room, "then what's your opinion?"

She looked up at him in silence for a single second. Up in space with their team, she was no commander. Her troops were on Olympia, she held no authority over team Voltron. And he knew this. He was their black paladin. No matter what she said, he always made the call. Did he truly value her opinion, or was he trying to save Keith's skin?

"Going in right away is stupid and reckless," Keith opened his mouth to say that she was a hypocrite before he was stopped by a hard smack on the shoulder from Shiro's hand that still wasn't blocking Trip's path to him, "but if you want to save your princess, it's our only option."

"Then it's settled." Shiro drops his arm from between Trip and Keith, "we're going in."

Their plan was to worm-hole onto one of the gas planets surrounding Zarkon's ship and then figure the rest out from there.

It wasn't an amazing plan, but it was what they could come up with on a time crunch.

Now everyone was huddled around Coran's control panel, eyes glued to the screen as she scanned for Allura's energy signature on Zarkon's ship.

"It's weak," He says, "but she's somewhere in the main ship."

"It gives us a starting point." Keith comments. He was still against being there, but he wouldn't let his opinion jeopardize the mission.

"Once we're closer, we can more accurately locate her," Coran explains.

"Alright, here's the plan," Shiro catches everyone's attention, "Voltron is gonna come in fast and undetected. We'll smash in, grab the princess and fly out."

"Seems easy enough," Lance smirks, "let's get going."

Everyone raced for the elevator to get to their lions. Trip stood still for a second longer, not quite sure why she was here if she was just going to stay in the castle. But, Shiro spoke up.

"Commander, you should ride in the Black Lion with me," he motions for her to follow, "if we do have to fight them on foot, you're the first one we want out there."

She began walking behind him without saying anything. Thankfully, she had changed out of the horrid uniform Allura had given her. She was now in her own armor again, fully protected and now much more comfortable with taking on anything Zarkon could throw at her.

The walk to the lions was long and tedious and it irritated Trip. She found it unnecessary. If they were under attack, it would take them ages to get their lions together to form Voltron.

But their time management skills weren't the problem at hand, and who was she to tell them how to layout their castle? This thing was undoubtedly older than her, surely they knew what they were doing when they built it to accommodate the lions.

The black lion was the biggest of them all. Of course, she had only seen the green lion up close, but she imagined that the others were all relatively the same size. And she hadn't even really seen the black lion up close. She and Shiro jumped straight from the zip line contraption to the inside of the cockpit. But it had a lot more room than the green lion did.

Trip stood in the back, as always, while Shiro's chair slid him up to the control panel and he began giving orders to the others through his helmet.

"Form Voltron," Shiro demands. There was a lot of jolting, a lot of shaking, and a lot of mechanical sounds that made Trip nervous. She had been on many ships, most of which they had hijacked from the Galra, and none of them sounded like parts were falling off of the outside. Was the black lion really that unstable?

She couldn't see it but Voltron was finally being formed.

"Wow." Is the first word spoken by the commander since boarding the black lion.

To the side of Shiro's view was a diagram of the giant robot she had gathered they were on. Every limb was a different color. The arms were Green and Red, the legs Blue and Yellow.

Trip had heard the stories. Every corner of the galaxy had heard them. And no one had had less hope than her that Voltron would come to their rescue. But now she stood in the head of it, looking at the mechanical diagram that told her every lion was functioning properly. It was like a dream.

Shiro looked back after he heard her, seeing her eyes wide and looking at everything in awe.

"It's amazing, huh?" He comments, grabbing her attention, "I found it hard to believe myself when we first formed."

Trip slowly nodded her head, "It's not like anything I've ever seen."

"You don't get used to it as time goes on."

They were all going at full speed towards Zarkon's ship, trying to be as inconspicuous as possible. But it wasn't the easiest thing when you were the size of a small planet. In fact, it was impossible.

"They're gonna fire!" Pidge shouts loud enough for Trip to hear from the back of the cockpit.

She looks up instantly towards the window in front of Shiro. There was an armada of Galra ships in front of the one they needed to get to, all with their guns glowing as they readied to shoot at them. Trip clenched and bit her lip in nerves. There was so many of them, more than she had seen her short lifetime. And surely more than the paladins could handle at once.

Their guns were ready, going off all at once in their direction. Trip couldn't look away as she watched purple rays shoot at them from all directions. It was all in fast motion as they shot at where they were seconds ago, where they predicted they would go, and some far away from them.

Shiro accelerated, weaving past the few that had managed to get close, and right towards one ship that was in their way.

He used Voltron's right arm, the red lion, to dive into the front of it. It made a decent dent from what Trip could see. She had scooted up to behind Shiro's seat, watching everyone intently. It was killing her to not do something useful.

Voltron quaked from the impact, bringing her nerves back to the surface.

"Form sword!" Shiro shouts.

The red lion was the wielder of the sword. And it was already pressed against the dented Galra ship. There was a roaring sound from the back of the black lion, signaling that one of the other lions was engaging something.

Trip was impressed. It worked like a brain. One of the lions did something, and it was like the black lion sent an okay for it to continue. The technology was truly amazing, and something she would have to tell her friends all about upon arriving home.

The sword struck deep inside the ship it was on, and the jetpack on the back of the black lion engaged. They glided along the side of the ship, sword dragging below them and making a clean cut through the purple and black metal. When the sword was picked up again, Voltron shot away from it without looking back.

Trip wished that they had. She wanted to witness the explosions she heard behind them. To watch another ship burn and float off to never be thought of again.

They aimed straight for another one that blocked them. The sword was held in front of them, making a break in the metal right where the engine was. They dragged it up as they flew over it, hitting the right spot so that it went up in explosions behind them just as the last one had.

The sword dove into another one with force, pushing the entire ship backward as it began to blow up. Trip watched as it went into a domino effect. The one they hit went barreling back into another one, and that one into a third.

"Form shoulder cannon!"

There was more buzzing, a confirmation of what he said. It's like the lions were communicating as much as their Paladins were.

From the corner of the screen, Trip could see something yellow sitting on the shoulder of the red lion. Then Shiro pulled back on the controls, and she saw multiple beams of light shooting from it. There were at least a dozen beams, practically racing to get as many Galra ships down as possible. The beams all fell flat when they fused together.

Finally, they had a clear shot towards the main ship, and they used it.

Trip's heart pounded the closer they got. The next seconds would probably decide if they all lived or died. She was prepared to go rolling out of the lion and take off Zarkon's head herself. They would hang it in the center of the camp.

Suddenly, everything stopped.

Voltron froze in the middle of the empty space before Zarkon's ship. The jetpacks ceased, the sword dissolved into nothing. It was like they had lost power to the black lion. Trip wasn't sure if that was possible, and if it was it had chosen the worse possible time to happen.

"What's happening?" She voices and looks around the dark cockpit.

It then went from dark, to lit up again. But sparks were flying from everything, reaching out from the panel like they were stretching for Shrio, trying to pry his hands off of the controls. Trip jumped as one of them reached her. This wasn't an enemy she could fight, but she reached for her sword anyway. She stepped back from the flickering sparks.

"Shiro, what is this?" She asks over the loud electrical malfunction sounds.

He was grunting with the force of something, his hands shaking on the control stick, "I...can't...hold...it."

Then the black lion went spinning. Shiro was in his seat, he remained in the same spot, but Trip was sent crashing into the walls. Thankfully she hadn't pulled her sword after all, all of the jolting around would have made her accidentally spear herself. She found herself gripping onto anything that fell into her reach to plant her feet back onto the ground. That thing was the back of the paladin's seat.

The lion stopped spinning a few yards away from where they were frozen, floating aimlessly as an individual lion once more. The lights came back on, though. But the sparks didn't go away.

But the peace for the black lion and those in it didn't last long. Trip didn't even have time to ask what was happening. Another purple beam came rocketing out of the main ship. Not to attack them, she gathered, but to pull them up towards their enemy.

This wasn't a surprise to them, Trip realizes as she watches Zarkon's ship get closer and closer, they knew we were coming.

She couldn't do anything sitting in the cockpit. She wasn't a paladin. And she couldn't do anything from outside either. She didn't have a ship or an army to back her up. For the first time in years, Trip felt helpless. Utterly helpless.

The door behind her interrupted the unwanted feelings. It was opening without Shiro pushing any buttons. At first, she thought it was just another glitch. Until a strong suction of air began pulling her out. It sucked the air straight from her lungs, distracting her from grabbing anything to hold on to.

Both her and Shiro were sucked out of the lion and ejected into space in the middle of a war. For Shiro, at least he could breathe. Trip's outfit didn't come with a mask, so she was left to suffocate as she was hurtling towards the battle.

Trip knew the drill. She had 90 seconds left to live, and no way to save herself. There was no ship nearby to crawl into, no lion to signal for help. In the distance she saw the castle above all the Galra ships, shooting from inside a barrier. But that was even farther away, there was no hope of getting back.

Her lungs burned as she involuntarily tried to gasp for air. It was no use, and she knew this, but her reflexes told her to breathe. As if it was that easy. As if all she had to do was try a little harder and she could live.

She could hear the shots all around her, but she couldn't move her head to see them. All she could see were the stars. The stars above stared back down at her, twinkling as if to say hello and goodbye all at once.

Harron and Haylie want to name their baby Star if its a girl.

That was all that ran through her head as she slowly suffocated alone in the middle of a battle that ruled her. Like that was the most important thing in the world and could bring the oxygen back to her lungs if she thought about it hard enough.

Her 90 seconds was flying by. Her vision began to dot, the fire slowly fading from her lungs. Maybe it wouldn't hurt if this is how she went. It wasn't with a bang, or by the edge of a blade. She had always imagined the end of her life would be bloody and painful. Maybe this wasn't the worse way to go; looking at the stars.

The black was taking over her vision. Only it wasn't as solid of a black as she figured it would be. It was transparent almost.

Her foggy mind began registering that it wasn't the darkness of her vision fading that she saw. Though, there was definitely a lot of that. She was seeing a shadow. A very large shadow of a very large lion.

The jaw clamped down over her, rescuing her from floating away into nothing to be lost forever.

"I got the commander! Shiro? You okay?" The voice of Hunk came rushing to her ears as he ran into the mouth of the lion, where she was lying still. There was still no air in the small space since there was no oxygen to scoop up with her.

She couldn't hear any other voices through his helmet. Her senses were slowly leaving her.

"Hey miss commander, I brought my spare helmet so...here." He lifts her head with one and slides the helmet onto her head.

His voice was muffled like she was hearing him from underwater, and her head felt extremely heavy. She couldn't lift her hands to put it on herself, so she hoped he got it on in time to save her.

It slid on easily, and she felt it sealing to her head size. She barely felt him hit the side of it, where a button must be or a trigger.

Fresh air flooded the mask. She sucked it in with a gasp so harsh it made her cough. The burning in her lungs came back just as intense as it had been the first time, but this time burning to get as much oxygen as possible.

She was gasping like her head had been shoved into a river and she would be shoved back under any moment. Her limbs felt weak as oxygen flooded back into her veins. She laid in the mouth of the yellow lion for a second, sucking in as much air as she could get into her lungs.

"Are you okay?" Hunk asks her as he kneels beside her, "man, I'm glad I forgot to take that mask out of here."

Trip weakly nods her head, "yeah...yeah I'm okay," it was more to convince herself that she was, though, not him.

"Whew, good." He chuckles dryly, "because we kind of need to save the princess while Shiro goes for the black lion," he rushes to add, "but you did almost suffocate so feel free to just chill for another second."

She shakes her head and begins pushing herself up, "No I'm good...let's go get her."

He helps her up, yanking her up with ease.

"I've got an idea, guys," Pidge's voice came booming from inside the helmet Trip now wore. The sudden loud noise made her jump and started a dull throbbing behind her ears. She realized it was just a com and allowed herself to relax for a split second, "I can hack into their mainframe to open the doors for us to get inside."

Hunk was already running back up to the cockpit of the yellow lion so he could get back into the fight, "that's gonna take too long!" he insists.

Trip follows him up, still light headed but not backing down from any kind of fight. Lance came in through the com next, just after a loud explosion that could be heard through everyone's helmets.

"Well, you got a better idea?" he asks as more shots are fired at every lion on the premises.

"Yes!" Hunk shouts.

His idea was to shove his lion head-first through the wall of where the princess was located. Finally, Trip thinks to herself, ground fighting. Something I'm good at.

Fighting right after nearly being suffocated to death wasn't the best, nor healthiest, idea. She was slightly slowed from still recovering, but was still on top of every Galra she saw.

Hunk went in first, his cannon bayard shooting in every direction. Trip came in right after, gripping her sword like a lifeline.

She spotted one that was headed for Hunk, whose eyes were focused on a different group of approaching Galra. She took a jumping start from the lion's jaw, right onto the back of the front Galra. She brought her sword in front of him, holding the sharp blade against the purple skin of his throat. She didn't give him a chance to beg for his life. The blade was pressed into his jugular and she slid it across smoothly. He body fell forward with a sickening gurgle, and she landed with her feet on his back.

The rest didn't slow down, so she didn't either. As soon as the footsteps of the last 3 were behind her, she turned with her by her side. The one nearest to her raised his gun to act like a shield when he thought she was going to attack. He left his torso open to being struck.

These officers aren't very well trained. Trip swung at his side with both hands, slicing through his metal armor.

He moved his gun down with a hiss to block the new wound. In doing so, he left his neck open. Trip brought the sword away from his side and up to his neck. The tip of sword went in, meaning he would drown in his own blood. She grabbed his shoulder to fling him onto the ground and out of her way.

Then she took a running start at another, still holding her sword but not aiming it to pierce him. She grabs his shoulders and pinches a pressure point, making his fingers relax and let go of his blaster.

"What--"

She kneed him right in the stomach before he could finish his single word question. He doubled over in pain. As soon as he was down, she used both hands to bring her sword up, and then swung it towards him with all of her might.

It was never a clean cut when beheading someone. It always took a few hacks to get it off. But she didn't have time to give him a clean death, she let him wither and scream in pain until he bled out.

Just as she was about to head for the last one, a bright blue blast from her left takes him down with one shot. She looks back to see Hunk with his cannon.

"Sorry," he says hurriedly, "sorry."

They were in a hall full of cells. Trip could hear that most were empty. There was probably a select few who were important enough to be held in Zarkon's ship cells.

From her time in an over-packed Galra cell of her own, she knew that you needed a handprint to get it open. But they didn't have time to go through every dead guard and figure out who's print opens the doors. Hunk settled for blowing a hole in the wall with his cannon

"Hunk?" the princess says when he steps in past the smoke. Trip walks up behind him, "Commander? What are you guys doing here?" her eyes widen to the size of the black lion itself, "please tell me you didn't bring Voltron straight to Zarkon!"

Neither Hunk nor Trip had a chance to reply before she was standing up, "where's the black lion?! Where's Shiro?! We have to save him!"

The princess sprinted past them, pulling Hunk behind her as she began running down the hall to the door that left all of the cells. Trip couldn't help rolling her eyes. She felt the princess had her heart in the right place, but a simple and sincere 'thanks' would have been nice.

She followed after them, spinning her sword in her hand to prepare herself for whatever they had to take on to get the black paladin and his lion out of here.

There were hardly any Galra left in the main ship itself. Zarkon had obviously not expected them to get on board so he posted them all in ships that would attack the lions from the outside. And the few who were still stationed inside were not all dead by where the yellow lion was still parked.

"Why is Zarkon after the black lion?!" Trip asks as they round another empty corner, "I mean the black lion specifically!"

"Commander I wish I could explain to you, but it'll have to wait until we're back on the castle and far away from here!" The princess skids to a stop, Hunk on one side and Trip on the other.

In the room before them, there was a cluster of something. It was obviously a person, and also an illusion. And Trip knew one bitch of Zarkon's who was good at illusions.

"Haggar." She says out loud, but not loud enough to catch the attention of anyone.

She would know that ugly cloak anywhere. It haunted her dreams and was imagined on every training dummy.

In the center of her illusion was the black paladin. He was looking at the cluster in fear, breathing heavily and frantically.

"Which one do I shoot?" Hunk asks, readying his yellow cannon.

Allura was scanning all of the figures, obviously distressed. Her white hair had been messed up and was barely hanging onto the bun style she had had it in. And with every passing second, she was getting more desperate to get Shiro away from Haggar. She had no experience with any kind of illusion. If she did, she would be able to tell that the illusions were blurrier than the real. So, she was willing to take a wild guess of which one to have Hunk shoot at.

"That one." Trip points to one figure moving among the rest. Even moving, she was less blurry than the ones standing still.

Hunk follows her fingers movement to see the real Haggar. His cannon went off three times, but she heard it before she could get hit.

Her purple face turned around, and she held up her hand to bring up a shield. It made the cannon's shots dissolve into nothing. When her focus was lost on her task at hand, all of the illusions faded away into nothing and only she was left.

Realizing she was now outnumbered four to one, the crazy witch disappeared in a gust of black smoke like her lackeys did. Trip grimaced at her disappearance. She always tapped out when there was more work involved than she liked, but she never left a problem undealt with. And she definitely considered them a problem.

While Allura and Hunk ran straight to Shiro, Trip slowed to survey the room. She knew Haggar wouldn't just let them walk out.

"Commander, hurry!" Allura calls. Trip turns her head to see that they were all by the entrance that they had been in before.

Trip began to trail after them, eyes still peeled in front of her.

The sound of sand on paper stopped her. And it was loud, so there wouldn't be just one lackey, there had to be a herd of them. She had never seen more than four in one place before, but the way her stomach dropped told her this was more than that.

The sound of them approaching was so loud she felt it rumble her eardrums.

She grabbed her sword immediately, the sound of metal still wet with blood being lost within the sound of enemies readying to appear.

One second, Allura was calling for her to hurry, the next she couldn't even see Allura anymore. Masks and cloaks and tall figures were surrounding her. There were at least 30 of them in one room, all focused on her. Forget the black and yellow paladins escaping, or the Altean princess. No, they were all focused on her.

"Commander!" She heard Hunk's voice past the sea of figures, but she was hardly concerned about getting to them. More like getting them to leave.

The paladins of Voltron mattered to the universe far more than she did.

"GO!" Trip shouts loudly as she wildly looks at every enemy surrounding her, "GO NOW!"

Like her voice triggered them, every single lackey began throwing all they had at her. Some were shooting their signature purple lightning, some were running straight at her with outstretched hands.

Trip raised her sword in an attempt to block the shots coming from their hands and towards her. She pushed a foot out, shoving back one that had gotten too close for comfort.

But she was one person. Granted, a very well trained person. The youngest commander of the biggest rebellion army in the galaxy. But even one well-trained commander couldn't take on 30 apprentices to a witch.

She moved the sword to her side, blocking one more blast. But another on her other side made contact with her uniform. It lessened the blow but it still hurt.

Trip hissed, moving her elbow down to block her side. Her right foot kicked another one back, but they were closing in fast.

Blue cannon fire was trying to make a way for her to escape, but they didn't care about them. They wanted her for whatever sick reason Haggar ordered.

"I SAID GO!" She yells to the paladins and princess, who were still there. The words passed her lips in time for a lighting blast to hit the back of her head. The yellow helmet she wore was jolted about, obstructing her view. And all of the movements were confusing her hearing. She hadn't been this overwhelmed in a battle since her first day on the front line.

One more hit to the back of her helmet.

Her vision was dotting as she fought to keep back all of the cloaked figures. Her body was still weak from almost dying once today, and it was getting weaker from being attacked and almost killed a second time.

With one more painful hit, the black dots took over her vision. She felt herself falling, but she didn't feel herself hitting the floor.


	10. Chapter 10

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> WARNINGS: BRIEF PERIOD OF TORTURE

Trip's head was spinning. So much so that even when she was regaining consciousness she refused to open her eyes. Not until she felt like the world stopped moving.

But it wasn't her imagination. The world is moving. And fast.

She cracks open her eyes, seeing blurred black and purple whizzing right past her. She blinks to open them wider and see more of where she was. She didn't move yet, not wanting to inform whoever was moving her that she was awake. They probably wanted to keep her out cold for as long as possible, whoever they were.

"Haggar demands the prisoner brought to the Persecution Room," whatever she was on stopped moving suddenly, jerking her body forward against something hard. She held back a hiss of pain. Her body was badly bruised, she could feel it now. The pain jumpstarted all of her senses, meaning she could now hear all of the footsteps around her

She was laying flat with something heavy covering her chest. Finally, curiosity got the best of her. She opened her eyes fully, allowing the purple lights to unblur before actually moving them around to see exactly where she was.

There were Galra guards around her. Two holding guns on both sides and two pulling from the bottom of the glider she was held to. None had noticed she was awake yet and she made no move to give it away beside her eyes. But it's not like she could've if she wanted to.

When she looked down at her body, she realized why it felt so heavy. Shackles were holding every joint on her body down. Her elbows, wrists, shoulders. If it could bend, it was held by a strong magnetic force to the metal bed below her. Even her neck was held in place like it could be used as a weapon. They had planned on her waking up soon, and they kept her immobilized when she did. They began moving again.

"Is all of this necessary?" She hisses up at her entourage.

All of them jump like she had spewed hot lava all over them by speaking, stopping the cart that she was held to again. The guns two of them held turned towards her head, but the hands that held them shook violently with fear. She weakly smirked at their reaction.

"I'm one person," she continues, "one person doesn't need all of this security."

One of the guards who had been pulling the cart spoke in what was a sad attempt at a confident voice, "you're the leader of the Olympian army. We would've had more but this is all we could fit."

She chuckles and moves her eyes down at him, "you should've found a way to get it on."

Of course, she couldn't actually do anything. The magnetic shackles were more than enough to hold down her weakened body. But she enjoyed the look of terror on their faces past their helmets. From those looks, she could tell that they had been told what she could do. And she loved that they fear her because of it. They should. When she got out, she wouldn't hesitate to chop off their heads and use them as kickballs.

They start moving once again when she didn't shatter her binds with laser eyes, all of their attention focusing ahead of them. But she didn't let them forget that she was awake.

"What does the witch want with me?" She asks, "whoever tells me, I'll kill them first so they don't have to watch the others die."

Every Galra body around her tensed up but nobody spoke. It wasn't like she expected to them. She was alone on their turf. And while they still wary of her, they knew that it gave them an advantage. If she did escape, she had no way of getting away. They were surrounded by hundreds of Galran fleets. At least, that's what she thought. They had probably lowered their guns because they felt safe.

The scenery above her changed as they passed into another room. It became darker and colder. It felt hollow and empty of all life, despite there being at least five living beings in it. It was like passing into another dimension void of all hope. This room had a dark energy filling it. The cart stopped moving forward, and she was spun around so her head was away from the door. It made her momentarily nauseous.

There came a pair of slow footsteps approaching her left side from someone who had been waiting. The guard on the same side backed up to make room for whoever it was. They were just outside of her view and it was driving Trip mad. She hated not being fully aware of all the enemies in the vicinity.

But the voice gave it away, "take off the neck shackle."

Trip's blood went cold and her heart sputtered. Haggar.

She tugged against the restraints, itching for one good hit to her temple. Hard enough to kill her. But the metal didn't budge. It didn't even creak at her force. Granted, it probably wasn't much. Since the last time she was conscious she had almost died twice and that took a toll on even an Olympian's body.

The guard on the opposite side of Haggar leaned over her head to get to the neck piece. As soon as it came loose, her head jolted up. He jumped back with a shout. Trip let out a single loud laugh.

"Scared of the monsters in the dark?" She taunts and tugs at the restraints some more, "well the real ones over there," she nods towards Haggar, who she had yet to look at. She wasn't sure she could keep it together once she did.

"Leave," the witch snaps at her guards.

All the metal-covered feet went scurrying from the room. They were relieved to be away from the scariest beings on the ship. There was a door sliding sound from the other end of the room.

Then it was her and Haggar. The face she saw in her memories behind the doors that made her mother scream in agony. The face that ruined her entire life. The face that dragged her mother from Earth and left her in a cell. She slowly looked over at her and anger replaced her blood. She wasn't upset or scared or shocked. Well, maybe those emotions were there. But they were buried so far under her anger that she couldn't feel them.

"Haggar," she says emotionlessly without breaking eye contact, "I wondered why all the birds stopped singing."

Trip was sure she was smiling under her long hood, "you're a talker," she says in her venomous voice, "you have spirit. Unlike your mother."

"You leave her out of this you undignified witch!" Trip raised her voice for the first time since waking up in the Galra ship, "I'll rip your head off and leave it on her grave!"

The change in attitude was instant at the mention of her mother.

Haggar only laughed. It made Trip see red. Her mother deserved none of the shit Haggar put her through. All because she was too invested in her experiments to care about the lives it effects. She wanted to hurt her as much as she hurt her mother, and then some.

"No you won't," Trip's head follows her as she begins walking around the room slowly, towards her other side, "you'll be joining her, though."

Trip hadn't looked anywhere but at Haggar since the guards had left the room. She hadn't inspected the rest of the room like she probably should've. So she didn't notice the table beside her.

The dim lighting glinted off of some shiny objects on it. Her head couldn't turn far enough to see exactly what they were. But when Haggar reached a long-nailed hand for it, she got a sneaking suspicion. There was one thing she knew the witch loved, making people hurt. Whether it was mentally or physically, it was like a game to her. A sick, twisted game.

Her purple hand lifted up one of the glinting objects. It was long and thin, and some of the flash was smudged with a dark substance she couldn't see. It was definitely sharp, though. It could cut paper with one touch from appearance. She didn't need to touch it to know.

"And you'll have something to talk about," she turns it in the light, revealing just how long the blade really was, "something in common."

"Like wanting you dead at the foot of Zarkon's throne?" Trip asks tauntingly, "you'd be surprised how many people I already have that in common with."

Haggar said nothing this time as she set whatever it was in her hand back down. She picked up another, lifting it into the air to examine it. It looked like a little wheel with spikes on the edges. It was attached to a stick to apply more pressure.

She wasn't inspecting anything, she just wanted to show off. And, although Trip's inner child trembled in fear, she called her out.

"Looking to show off your toys?" She snarks off, "not the best I've seen."

The blacksmith on Olympia made weapons that the Galra could never be trained enough to touch. Her toys were just that; toys. Things to make people squirm in fear while she barely broke their skin. Until they spilled whatever she wanted to know, or until she got whatever bodily organ required. And once their use was fulfilled, she killed them. Or until they died of natural causes like blood loss.

That's what happened to her mother.

She bled out on the table.

"Oh they're not to impress," Haggar brings her other hand out of her robe's long sleeve, "they're to get you to tell me where your army is hiding out. And where Voltron went. Oh, we have so much to talk about."

"It's going to be a very one-sided conversation."

Haggar chuckled like she had told her a mildly funny joke. A Lance joke, "we'll see about that."

She picked her first tool carefully. A thicker knife that appeared to be less sharp than the first one she had picked up. Trip was familiar with pain. Training with swords sharpened to cut a falling leaf had resulted in many cuts; deep and shallow alike. But something told her that those training cuts would be fond memories soon.

"We'll start small," Haggar presses the thick blade into her upper arm. Not enough to break the skin, but she just had to apply a little more pressure before it did, "how many are in your army?"

Trip held her gaze, keeping her mouth shut firmly. She couldn't fight back with the shackles holding her down but she wouldn't give her anything close to what she wanted. That included fear.

Haggar pressed harder, blood dribbling down her arm in a small stream to the table. Trip didn't flinch, though internally she hissed.

"This should be an honor for you," Haggar pushed the dull knife into the soft skin of the commander. She dove it so far in only the handle was visible. Trip couldn't stop the scream that erupted from her mouth. Her eyes squeezed shut and her head fell against the table below her. She tried to pull her arm away from the pain, but she couldn't move a single limb uncle the force of her shackles, "I usually make an apprentice do the dirty work," she twists the handle and Trip screams so loud the guards on the outside heard, "but when I saw the great commander was here, I had to spill the blood myself."

She ripped the knife out. Since it had been twisted in her arm, it ripped through new muscles and untouched skin. She sucks in a harsh breath, feeling the warm blood flow down her arm and make a crimson puddle on the metal below her.

Trip takes deep breaths to get through the pain she wasn't expecting, tugging at her arm again. Still, there was no budging. And the more she moved it, the more blood was added to the growling pool of it below the wounded arm.

"So," Haggar asks, toying with the knife in her hand that was no coated in Trip's blood, "how many of you are there?"

Trip turns her pounding head back in her direction. There was still no fear in her eyes, even though she knew it was only going to get worse the longer she stood strong. But there was nothing in the world that could make her talk.

"Enough to obliterate you and everyone on Zarkon's ship."

The witch laughed, "you're not on Zarkon's ship anymore, you fool," she explains, "we've seen what you can do from the inside of a ship. You've been moved."

Haggar drops her hood with the hand not holding the bloodied and dull knife. Her hair was white, but the kind of white that was naturally that way and hadn't colored with age. It was stingy and thin, falling along both sides of her face like shredded curtains that lost their purpose. Her previous smug smirk dropped and was replaced by an angry grimace.

"You won't talk easily, " Haggar observes, "but you'll talk."

The Commander snarled, arm still burning from the open wound, "do your worst, bitch."

Trip thought she had a relatively high pain tolerance. But after Haggar shoved an entire row of knives into her arm, she realized she was wrong. This pain was different from the pain on a battlefield. Wounds inflicted during a fight had breathing time if you took a step back. But Haggar just pushed in one blade after the other, ripping her apart with dull blades and tearing her with sharp ones.

Her clothes stuck to every new cut on her body, pulling her skin farther apart when moved in the slightest way. Her body was covered in gashes made by all sorts of devices that Haggar had brought it when her displayed ones hadn't worked. There were deep red bruises from the hammer used to beat against her shoulder until she felt her collarbone crack. The old witch had a mean swing when she wanted to.

After so long, Trip figured passing out would get them to stop. So she surrendered to the dark once more and relished in the peaceful blackness that greeted her.

And this was only day one.

When she woke up, she regretted it.

Everything was on fire. And if it wasn't burning, it was throbbing. There was too much pain to contain in one are, so the burn from one cut would have to extend and blend into the pain of another. At this point, she didn't know what injury was causing what pain. It all fused into one.

Thankfully, she didn't feel the restraints on her anymore when she refocused on the real world. Her arms were free to move until the burning stopped her.

She was laying on the ground of an aggressively familiar room. A Galra prison cell. She would know the claustrophobic space anywhere. The lack of light was what made up every childhood memory she had. Although the one she had grown up in was the same size as the one she lay wounded in now, she had more room now.

"Ugh," she mutters to herself while craning her sore neck around the small area, "home sweet home."

Ever so slowly, she pushes herself up. She bites her lip to swallow any sound of pain that tried to escape her as she moved. After a few excruciating minutes, she was finally sitting up in the center of the cell. It was plain and square. No seats, no beds, but a bucket in the corner for her to do her business. At least they were considerate of hygiene.

She gave herself a second to breathe before bending her knees. The lacerations covering every inch of her skin protested at the pulling of wounds and dried blood. She pushed herself back using what strength was left in her calves, crashing into the wall behind her with a soft thud.

She hisses and clenches her fists at the burning. If she laid in the middle of the floor, the blood would flow faster onto the ground. Plus, this way she wouldn't pass out again so quickly. She wanted to get a head start on whatever unfortunate soul opened the door.

Granted, she probably wouldn't be able to get up, but she could bite the fuck out of whoever got close enough. She would do what she could. Besides, this wasn't Zarkon's ship anymore. This was probably a small and inconspicuous ship that no one would think held the commander of the Olympians on it. It would be easy to overthrow the commands if she could heal only a little bit.

But something told her that wouldn't happen.


	11. Chapter 11

||Flashback||

_"Tripella," her mother spoke as softly as she always did when the cell was so crowded, "you know I love you, don't you?"_

_Her voice was so soft it was like she was trying to keep her words between the two of them. In a cell so small full of 27 people and 2 lifeless bodies, nothing was private. Your thoughts were shared because others thought the same things, your personal space was everyone's space. But the way her mother spoke, it was like they had a small bubble that belonged to them. Like no one else could hear the words said._

_"I love you too, mama." The six-year-old girl said sleepily. She clutched her only toy in her weak fist. The old elephant was as dirty as she was._

_Trip was curled into her mother's chest to make room for the leather-skinned alien man that was pressed against the wall beside them. There was hardly enough leg room for everyone, so if a child could be moved around to make more then they would be. And no doubt that, soon, another prisoner would be shoved in with them._

_Trip's mother felt the ribs of her daughter through the scrap shirt she wore. It made her throat close up._

_This wasn't the life they were supposed to have. She wasn't supposed to give birth in prison or raise her in the dark with barely enough food to live. She wanted Trip to know sunlight and to run in the sand of the beaches on earth, maybe with a dog that Charlie talked her into getting. She deserved a normal childhood. Not the one she was getting._

_"We're gonna get out of here, peanut." She says even quieter than before to her, "we're gonna go home someday soon."_

_The tears that had permanently made a home in her eyes began to slide down her hollow cheeks. She may have said it a lot, but she never believed it. Six years in the same tiny cell. Nothing could ever make her believe it. But she wanted Trip to._

_"You'll see me and your dads house." Tripella listened intently, "you'll see the rest of your family. Grandma and grandpa. Aunt Tessa. Uncle Ryan."_

_Tripella lifts her head of matted, curly brown hair to look at her mothers face through the dark. Her small fists held onto her stuffed toy like it would be ripped away at any moment. It wasn't seen, but her brown eyes were wide in wonder. The names of her family members were familiar to her, but she couldn't put faces to them. She could hardly put a face to the name mama._

_"Can you tell me about it again?" She asks in a whisper, "and about daddy?"_

_Her mother sent an unseen watery smile in her direction. Her hand blindly reached up to stroke her dirty hair, "of course, peanut."_

_She pulls her back into her chest as she begins talking about their home planet. About Earth and the people who awaited their return to it._

_"Me and your dad live in this beautiful place called Whitehaven Beach. The sand is so soft its like you're walking on air," In her mind, she could see it clearly, but Tripella was only imagining it. She had never seen clouds or oceans. She didn't know what a beach looked like. Her mother didn't think she ever would. But she would describe it as best she could to make it seem like she did, to tell her about the house she should've grown up in. About the places she should've known by heart now._

_"the water is always warm enough to swim in. During the day, the sky is bright and full of sunshine. But at night, its full of stars and planes that look like shooting stars. There are trees small enough to climb, and big enough to touch the sky. You'll love it there, peanut," her throat was closing in tears, but Trip was smiling in joy, "your room is all ready for you when we get there. It's got a big bed, and all the toys we could find for you."_

_"But I can keep Elly-fant." Trip states._

_Her mother let out a shaky laugh and nodded her head against her hair, "you can keep Elly-fant."_

_Everyone could hear them but pretended that they couldn't. No one had the heart to ruin their moment by telling them to be quiet so they could sleep. They had the rest of their lives to sleep away their imprisonment._

_"And daddy is waiting there too. He made me laugh all the time, so I know you won't stop laughing when we get there." She could see his face clearly in her head when she talked about him. His brown hair, his freckles, his hazel eyes. But he wasn't waiting for them when they got back. He wasn't waiting for anywhere, "And he loves you so much, peanut. You're gonna be such a daddy's girl. He'll spoil you rotten," her descriptions of another life fade away as she feels Trip yawn against her chest. She was thankful for her tiredness, she couldn't take much more without crying. Her tears stop as she closes her eyes to collect herself._

_"Tired now, peanut?" She asks with a weak laugh._

_Tripella softly nods her head against her chest. She adjusts herself so one arm is latched around her neck, and the other curled under her with her stuffed toy, "can you sing the song, mama?"_

_Her mother smiles and leans her against the cold metal wall behind her._

_"Of course I can," Her voice broke at the end, "anything for you, peanut."_

_And she began,_

_"So this is where we are  
It's not where we wanted to be  
If half the world's gone mad  
Then the other half just don't care, you see..." ___

__

__||Flashback ends||_ _

__

__"You don't wanna fuck with us_  
British to the very last  
When it feels like the world's gone mad  
And there's nothing you can do about it..."_

__Four weeks. That's how long she had been stuck in the same place as Haggar. Cycling between torture and isolation. Given bread scraps to eat and a quarter cup of water every two days. Just enough to keep her alive. To keep her feeling._ _

__Her body now had no untouched surface from blades or hammers or fire. She was a fully covered canvas, and surely Haggar would lose her interest. She had to realize that she wouldn't speak a word about her people or about Voltron. Nothing mattered more than keeping them all as safe as she could._ _

__There was a whirring at the door, the sound of the passcode being put in and her door about to be opened. It pulled her attention away from the song that had been repeating her head._ _

__She didn't bother moving. Her arm was fractured days ago, she couldn't do much even if she did move. Her punches would be weak. So she sat still, awaiting the guards to pull her back onto the bloodstained table and strap her down. There was nothing new Haggar could do to her, nothing to make her talk. They had to know it was in vain._ _

__The door slid open, but she didn't hear the rolling of the cart. Or the rattling chains. She wrinkled her brow in confusion. It wasn't her 'lunch' time yet, and she had yet to be poked and carved._ _

__The light coming from the hall distorted her vision for a moment. All she saw were silhouettes. Then one of the two stepped into the light. It was the witch herself._ _

__"You make house visits now?" Trip gives a cold laugh, "a true witch doctor you're becoming."_ _

__Haggar ignored her comments and took a few steps more into the tiny cell. She looked over the commander, looking pleased with her work. But she wasn't pleased with the results of her work. There was a long silence as her glowing yellow eyes stared her down._ _

__Trip rolled her own eyes and held her fractured arm to her chest as she awaited her to speak. More taunting was useless, the guards took their own jabs at her if she got a little too mouthy for their liking._ _

__Finally, Haggar voiced whatever was on her sadistic mind, "I believe I've been going about this all wrong," she says._ _

__"You realized I'm never going to tell you anything and all of this is in vain?"_ _

__"No. I've been trying to break you physically when I should have been taking the mental approach," she motions whoever was behind her to come forth. She realized it was a Galran guard. He was holding something covered in thick black cloth. It looked to be one of her Lackey's robes, but that was probably less than true, "so I took the liberty of finding the Olympians myself."_ _

__Trips heart sputtered. No. There was no way she found them so quickly. Or at all. They had been hidden for so long. Almost 10,000 years of hiding their home from the Galra. There wasn't a chance in the galaxy she cracked their location in four weeks._ _

__"W-wha..." Trip's voice fell. She pushed herself off of the wall to stare at her more closely._ _

__"They practically fell into my hands," the witch laughs softly and spreads her purple palm up to the sky, "searching for their precious commander in stolen Galra ships. All I had to do was have a fake ship attack them, planting a tracker on theirs and then retreat."_ _

__Her palm curled in on itself to make a wrinkled fist, "and then I could destroy them at the source."_ _

__No. Harron wouldn't send a party. He was smarter than that. She was not important enough to risk the entire army over. He would be a better commander than that._ _

__But her heart pounded harder. He may have been desperate. Haylie may have been desperate. And he would do anything for Haylie._ _

__Oh god, Haylie. Her best friend. Her sister. Did she make it out? Did the baby? Harron must've gotten them out. He had to have saved them._ _

__"We crushed every last Olympian on the planet."_ _

__Trips body fell back against the wall. She could hear her heart in her ears, feel the blood pumping in her chest. If they really got them, if what Haggar said was true....then she had nothing left._ _

__Her breathing turned ragged while trying to get in a deep one. The more she thought about it, the more she realized that Harron could've sent a party to get her. He was probably the head of it. Haylie may have been hysterical, and he would do anything for her. Even risk their position._ _

__Her body began going numb. The aching cuts and bruises and burns were no comparison to being told everything she had gained since being free was ripped away. She could physically feel the pain in her chest, the heartbreak._ _

__Haylie and Harron...and baby Star. Butcher Siirist and the healer Sharia. All of the faces that greeted her when she came home from battle. All of the people that helped her up when she was knocked down by training. All of them dead._ _

__It's like she felt that shred of hope that she kept alive, die. Burn with the hopes of seeing them all again. Of seeing baby Star and Haylie and Harron._ _

__"In case you don't believe us, here's our proof." Haggar motioned to the guard. But she saw the belief in her face, she was just having fun adding to it._ _

__The guard threw the black bundle on the ground. It landed with a heavy thud, vibrating the whole floor. The top of the black fabric fell off of the bundle._ _

__"Oh my god. Oh my god." Trip found herself chanting it like a mantra, "Oh my god, Haylie."_ _

__The bright pink skin, the matching hair. It was matted with dark blood, and her face was turned away. She couldn't bring herself to turn her over and look at her properly. It had been so full of life with a smile, and bright eyes last she saw her. She couldn't bare to see those same eyes glassed over and taken by death._ _

__She swiveled herself around so she was sitting on her knees, one shaky hand reaching towards the body of her best friend._ _

__"We'll leave you to do the rest yourself."_ _

__Haggar walked out of the room unphased, her guard trailing behind her. The sliding of the door was lost in the ringing of her ears._ _

__Trip was left in the room with the body of the one person she was certain she loved. She touched her shoulder, and it was ice cold. A sob escaped her as she pulled her hand back like it was searing hot. The physical pain in her chest grew and grew the longer she stared. Until it was worse than anything she had felt the past four weeks._ _

__"Oh my god," was all she could say as she fell backward onto her butt. She couldn't form any more thoughts as she began to cry._ _

__Crying was alien to her. She hadn't felt tears run down her cheeks since her mother was buried on Olympian soil a free woman. She didn't cry when her mentor was killed, or when Haylie and Harron got married. Tears weren't something she let flow freely._ _

__But she cried now. Curled as far away from the body as possible as she sobbed into her knees. Nothing would ever hurt as much as this. Nothing ever had._ _

__

__||Flashback||_ _

__

____"We've arrived," the kind Galra informed young Trip as she sat behind him, "Olympia."_ _ _ _

___The child didn't bother looking up from her cold bowl of food. Ulaz, the kind man flying the ship, had given it to her hours ago. But she wasn't hungry. Her stomach grumbled like always but she wouldn't be able to hold anything that went down._ _ _

___The ship came to a smooth stop in the air, hovering above the ground of the alien planet. They had been expecting him to arrive with released prisoners who needed refuge, so no swords or arrows went to attack the ship._ _ _

___"You need to eat," Ulaz tells her as he bends to her eye level. She shrugs her thin shoulders but doesn't move to do so._ _ _

___Her mother was a seat behind her, found cold on a torture table when their saviors arrived. She hadn't looked at her since telling Ulaz who it was and begging him to help her. The first time she had properly seen her mother, she was dead. Her eyes were clouded in death and her tan skin was paler than when alive. Darkness had always covered her face. She would never get to see her true beauty._ _ _

___Ulaz realizes he can't force her to eat, so he sighs, "okay. Let's go see where you'll be staying."_ _ _

___He takes a small hand in his to lift her to her feet. She leaves the cold soup on the seat, not interested in what it might have tasted like. She looks away from her mother's body when they pass it, instead looking at the glowing suit of Ulaz and his friends. Ulaz had taken her body from the torture table he found her one when Trip confirmed her identity._ _ _

___Though he and his friends looked more intimidating than the empire, she knew they were better. They fed the prisoners, gave them water. Ulaz even agreed to take her mother with them with no hesitation._ _ _

___The ship Trip was on lowered a ramp to the ground. Even in her state of sorrow, she looked around in amazement._ _ _

___There were colors she had never seen. Green covered the grounds, dotted in wildflower colors, the sky was vibrant blue with puffs of white. Colors her mother had only told her about but she had never seen. She didn't see the oceans or sand, so she knew this wasn't the place her mother had once called home. Whitehaven beach was not on this planet._ _ _

___Just past the trees in her sight, Trip saw a wall. It was taller than Ulaz, spikes covering the tops. Part of it was swung open to reveal the hoards of people inside of it waiting for her. No other prisoners got off with her, only Ulaz as her escort and one more person carrying the body of her mother. They must only be dropping the kids off on this planet._ _ _

___They approached the gate, where someone came through the crowd. He was shorted than Ulaz, but more intimidating. He had what was once horns curling up from his forehead. At least, he had one horn curling. The other was cut off almost to the skin. Ragged and bumpy while the other curled and almost touched down to his ears. On his forehead were three painted black lines._ _ _

___Ulaz clicked his heels, "Commander," he greets._ _ _

___The man waves him off, "there is no need for that, old friend," his deep voice rumbles the air around him, "you are not an Olympian, I am not your commander."_ _ _

___Ulaz nods before motioning down to the small girl beside him. He places his large had on her shoulder, "this is Tripella," he introduces her, "the only child saved from the Galra prison."_ _ _

___The man moves his eyes to the little girl. She felt smaller than she was against his gaze. It was like he was sizing her up and was not impressed with what he was seeing. She looked down to the ground, her tiny hands clamping to Ulaz so they didn't shake. There was no need to appear anymore frightened than she already did._ _ _

___"Kenaa ke vee," the commander says in a language Trip did not understand but would know better than her mother tongue in the coming years. He looks at Ulaz unsympathetically._ _ _

___"Kenaa ren jenaup," Ulaz tells him, "kenaa benu zan."_ _ _

___The commander looks back down at Trip, "and she'll get it," he says, "come here, Tripella."_ _ _

___She looks up at Ulaz to see if it was safe. He nods, letting her hand slip from his so she can cautiously approach the stranger. She was a foot in front of him when he knelt down to see her more clearly. Now she could see his face details._ _ _

___His nose was rather large and flat, almost disappearing into the rest of his face entirely. He had very hooded eyes and thick eyebrows above them. He was a sight to remember, that's for sure._ _ _

___After a second of seeing her closer he says, "I think you'll fit in well here," he holds out a hand covered in scars, "I'll make sure of it."_ _ _

___She glanced back at Ulaz as she put a shaky hand in the commanders. This man was intimidating, and while Ulaz was no better at least she knew him now. His fingers were calloused and rough but held hers with great care. He stood up, gently pulling her to his side to stand in front of Ulaz._ _ _

___"In fact, I'll take care of her myself. I'll protect her by making her my Vartara."_ _ _

___Murmurs came from behind him. The open gates let out the whispering of those inside. She was a child, and their commander was making her his second? To protect her? She didn't seem worth protecting._ _ _

___But she ended up protecting them._ _ _

___This was the day she got somewhere to call home and met the people who would turn her into a strong woman with fire in her eyes and smoke on her breath. ____ _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hate messing with the italics on here or else I would've put the flashback in italics. It worked on the top part and then....just decided not to on the other?? Yeah I gave up trying to fix it
> 
> Also, the translations for what Litarra and Ulaz said:  
> Kenaa ke vee- "She is small"  
> Kenaa ren jenaup- "she was starved"  
> Kenaa benu zan- "She needs care"


	12. Chapter 12

For six days she didn't move from the corner. After two, the body began to smell. One more it started to bloat. Trip wasn't aware of how long it had been. She stopped counting the days.

Her tears ran dry and at one point she dry heaved herself into sleep. But her position never changed. With her legs curled into her chest and her head in her knees, her joints were so stiff she probably wouldn't be able to move if she ever got out of there.

Still, when Haggar returned to ask her questions about Voltron, she remained silent. She may have lost her home but no one else had to lose theirs. So she was still every time the door opened every sharp word meant to hurt. But nothing hurt more than looking up and seeing Hailey on the ground still.

Haggar had to figure out this wasn't going to make her talk. Or maybe she just wanted to see when her sanity would finally break. It was being held together by a thread now, and it kept stretching and stretching every time she looked up. It could snap any second. And what was worse was that she didn't care. She didn't care what they did to her, she didn't care that she was a ticking time bomb or who got hurt when she finally went off.

There was no one left that she cared about to hurt. No one to cover from the blow.

It was day six of living with Haylie's body. And no, she hadn't moved. If she felt pain anymore then she would know that her back hurt and her head had a never-ending ache.

BOOM!

The sound forces her to slam her head against the wall of the cell. The ship tilted from whatever hit it. She heard the body move slightly towards her. A choking sound left her mouth that sounded suspiciously like a cry for help. The cuts and wounds on her body itch like bug bites after being disturbed by the sudden movement.

BOOM!

She slowly lifted her head but stared straight forward. Just enough to listen closely to whatever was attacking. It was close to the cells. Maybe a wing over where the 'persecution room' was. There was no doubt that Haggar was already sending her lackeys to the deal with whatever it was.

"-ander....cells...quick," She could hear someone outside in the wall. Probably a guard coming to ask more questions. Or just to see how insane was going. Haggar probably wanted to be told when she broke.

There was loud pounding following the voice. Still, she didn't move. No matter how sure she was that she was about to be dragged back to the room to be torn apart. She pressed her head back to her knees and hoped it lasted a while. She wanted to be out of that room for as long as possible.

Just as her forehead touched her knees, the crashing reached her door. It shocked her back up and she snapped her eyes to it. That wasn't how guards open prison doors. So it couldn't be a guard.

The door was now dented towards her, about to break if someone blew on it. And someone did from the other side. It came crashing down like a lone domino, falling to the floor with a heavy tremor in the floor. Her eyes squinted in pain at the sudden light.

"I've got the commander, regroup at the lions," the voice was familiar, but her fogged and bruised mind couldn't process it. The figure stepped into the cell, blocking the light and giving her a better view of who was pulling her from the fire, "commander we have to be fast, can you walk?"

The red paladin stood in the doorway, sword in one hand and a white mask for oxygen in the other. He was looking down at her, at first in persistence. She watched it turn to confusion when she didn't move from the ground. Where was he going to take her? The castle? Home?

As far as she was concerned she had nowhere to go back to. No reason to leave.

"Commander we have to go now! Haggar is gone but her guards are still here!"

She looks up at him with hollow eyes. He wouldn't be here alone. If it was up to him, she was sure he wouldn't be here at all.

"What are you doing?" she asks in a desolate voice.

His violet eyes roll to the top of their sockets as his expression faded to irritation, "getting you out, obviously! You think we want war with the Olympians and Zarkon?! Now get up!"

She rests her cheek against her left knee. She didn't want to say out loud that her family was dead. Wether she stayed or left made no difference. Explaining it would make it more real. So she settled for telling him to, "leave."

It only angered him. He rushed forward, past the lump on the floor. He didn't miss the bright pink and bloated figure, but he didn't have time to stop and actually look to see what it was.

He grabbed the commander by her arm, shocking her into lifting her head. While it was up, he dropped his sword to lay beside him. It hit the blood stained cement in Bayard mode while not in use. He used his now free hand yank the white mask over her head. He made sure it was tight enough to not slip off, then hit the button.

The fresh air hit her like a punch to the lungs. She almost forgot what it tasted like, how cold it felt in her lungs when she breathed deeply. The shock made her loosen up enough for Keith to grab her arms.

"We don't have time for this!" He says angrily, "if you want to feel bad for yourself later, that's none of my business! But right now we have about five minutes before Haggar's minions show up!"

He took her by her elbow, pulling her up into a forced standing state. She couldn't feel the pain of her limbs unbending from their set position, but she heard the pops. Her eyes traveled down to the lump on the floor. And once they were there, she couldn't look away. The whole time, she hadn't been able to look and see if it was really Hailey. And now she wouldn't be able to tell after so much bloating.

Keith followed her eyes, prepared to tell her to book it and worry about whatever it was later. But while looking down, he caught of a glimpse of something in the eyes that always seemed barren of anything but authority and anger. It was something broken and sad.

He hadn't known her long, but he knew those weren't emotions she showed outwardly. So he continued to where she looked.

The lump he had run past when getting to her was a covered body. He wasn't amazingly shocked. He had seen bodies before, even been the cause of some. And he knew for a fact she wasn't disturbed by bodies either. It must've been who it was that disturbed her so deeply. He could only assume that it was someone she knew.

"Come on," he looks back at her again, "can you run?"

She only nods, eyes still on the body but no longer showing anything.

She was in public again. And the commander in her wouldn't let her be seen as puny and weak, no matter how much she felt like it. Though she had no army to command, she was still the acting Heda.

He took off out the door, her following in suit. Just like she had suspected, there was now a gaping hole in the 'persecution room' where she had heard the first attack. The room was practically gone beyond the door when it opened.

The red lion was closest to their area, but she could see the others when she turned her head. Even the black lion, which they had thankfully gotten back after the attack at Zarkon's ship. They were all scattered around the ship, their paladins crawling out of different areas. They must have been scouring the ship for her.

"Commander, can you hear us?" The voice of the princess comes through the helmet she had on. They approached the edge of what was left to stand on, and she had no jetpack like them to get to the lion.

She sucks in a breath, "yeah...I'm here." she tells them all.

"Oh thank god." Lance says merrily, "one prisoner on the ship and it's you, that's luck."

Yeah. Lucky.

"Come on, commander." Keith disrupted anyone else who wanted to say something to her, "Allura's got a healing pod ready at the castle."

She was about to ask how he expected to her float there in time when she realized his hand was outstretched. He did have a jetpack. She looks at him, eyes still squinted from the light change. She could see his face clearly now, though. And he didn't look like he was angry, like every other time he looked at her. It was soft, like she was glass. And it looked a lot like pity.

She reluctantly places her hand in his. Instantly his jetpack turns on, pulling them both through space and away from her second prison cell. But she didn't feel like she was leaving. If Haggar wasn't lying then Haylie was back in that cell.

The lion's opened for its paladin to land inside. As soon as the mouth closed again, their hands parted like acid was between them. He didn't bother looking back at her before walking towards the corridor that led up into the cockpit.

"You don't know how happy we are to have found you, commander," Shiro says as soon as the lion shakes to begin moving, "we've been in contact with your second for a few weeks now, he's been breathing down our necks."

Her eyes widened, but looked at no one. There was no one aorund to look at. She could feel the lion moving, but she couldn't move her legs.

"My second?" She asks. Her voice was hoarse and tired. Not to mention dry. She expected he also didn't know about Olympia, "when was the last time you talked?"

"A few hours ago."

She couldn't stop the seed of hope that was planted now. If Harron was alive then they couldn't have found Olympia. A Heda, even a temporary one, didn't leave a battle. She was afraid to breathe too hard. If she did, the blooming hope in her chest could shatter. And she didn't want it to. It had been too long since she had felt it or anything close to. So long she had lost track.

She closed her eyes, "uh did he say how Olympia is doing? Is everyone okay?"

She didn't sound like it, but she was desperate to hear that they were okay. That everyone was okay. But now she had someone out there again to go back to.

"He said everyone's mad about us leaving you behind. But other than that he hasn't given us any information."

She had to take off the helmet. She didn't want them to hear her so close to tears. Not like the tears of agony that threatened to poor over. These were of pure relief. Six days of thinking she had finally lost everything, and all of that pain went sliding off with a few sentences. She sucked in a deep breath to control herself.

Instead of letting the tears out, she replaced them with a smile. It made her cheeks hurt. Hailey and the baby were okay. Butcher Siirist and the healer Sharia. Even Farmer Lonel. She had never felt so happy to hear anything in her life. No after-battle feeling compared to knowing she had a home to go back to.

"Commander? Are you there?" She started her walk to the cockpit while everyone tried to reach her, "Commander?"

"I'm still here," she says as she enters the cockpit. She leans against the back wall, still a small smile gracing her face.

Keith glanced over his shoulder when she arrived, at first just as a reflex when he heard movement. But his eyes stayed for a few seconds longer than he meant for them too. Past the white helmet, he could see her smile.

It wasn't like the cold ones she had given to everyone before. It was happy, truly happy. Like someone handed her a winning lottery ticket.

Even behind the mask, he could see how different she looked. All she had to do was show a little emotion and he found she looked less stuck up. Like the 17-year-old she was supposed to be. He turned back around.

Still, he couldn't get how she looked before out of his head. He hadn't seen anyone look that broken, even when Shiro came back from being kidnapped. Whoever that was on the floor must have really messed her up.


	13. Chapter 13

Trip had never been happier to see the floating castle surrounded by its glowing blue shield.

With her broken soul finding its pieces and sewing itself back together, she was beginning to regain feeling in her limbs. And it just got worse with every passing second. Some cuts had reopened, bruises had been bumped, and burns had been rubbed against. New blood was leaking into her already ruined outfit.

The red lion wasn't docked in the hangar with the rest of the lions. It flew right into an opening on the side of the castle, giving a rough landing and rattling Trip against the wall.

Along the ride, her legs had given up. She slid down and was now sitting with her legs to her chest once more. Her mind was set on other things besides her people. She knew that they were all safe, she had been right to trust Harron as her second. But she was still concerned with the body on the ground. No, it hadn't been Haylie. Thank god it hadn't been Haylie. But that means it had to have been another Eow. Her species.

There weren't many of them left. Haylie told her that herself. When they heard of their planet about to be invaded by the Empire, they scattered the galaxy to find refuge. Haylie and her mother found Olympia, her aunt and uncle had supposedly found a placed called Atrora to call home. It wasn't like you would see one walking around wherever you looked.

Haggar must have remembered Haylie. She had to have seen them together before. It was logical. Before Haylie got pregnant they were a team. While Harron was her second head when it came to the politics of leading, she was her second set of eyes on the battlefield. They fought together for years, trained together before that. Haggar must have hunted down an Eow, scoured the galaxy to find one. Then she killed her for the purpose of tearing Trip apart from the inside.

An unnecessarily lost life. Trip promised herself to never tell Haylie about what had happened her last few days in there. To know someone was killed because they were like her would break her heart. And to know that she was used to hurt Trip would be even worse on her.

"Commander," Keith spoke while his chair slid back enough for him to stand. He pulled the helmet off so his voice was no longer through the helmet but through the air, "Coran has the healing pod ready."

She looks up from her deep thoughts, beginning to push herself up the wall and into a stand position. Blood dripped from a particularly deep cup that reopened. She didn't register that yet, just that it stung a little more than the rest. She had no idea what a healing pod was, but she figured it was something like their infirmary back home. Maybe more high tech if it was like the rest of the castle.

"Uh..." came his voice again when she slowly pushed herself up off the wall. Keith awkwardly rubbed the back of his neck, holding the helmet under his other hand, "do you need any...help?"

She looks over to him, reaching up to yank off her own helmet. Her pride told her no, but the aching in her body told her yes. One was stronger than the other.

She sighs, nodding her head weakly.

Neither of them made an attempt to make eye contact as he set his helmet in his seat. She left her helmet on the ground, deciding if it was really important then she could find it later. He looped an arm around her waist, lifting her arm over his shoulder.

He did most of the work to keep her up as they left the lion. She was pretty sure her feet were only on the ground to save a sliver of her inner pride. He was practically carrying her.

She expected him to drag her along, if not just leave her in the lion. She didn't know why he was suddenly so nice to her. Last she remembered he was yelling that he didn't trust her across the training deck and looking for any excuse to set team Voltron against her. Now he was practically dragging her to the 'healing pod' after being tortured.

His eyes would move from between the stairs leading down the lion, to her. She could feel it every time his attention darted to her. He may have thought he was getting away with it but she always knew when eyes were on her. Partially because they always were on her.

"If you're gonna say something then say it, paladin," she tells him as they near the exit of the lion. It was quite a walk to the end, she was glad she had accepted help, "or at least quit looking at me."

"I'm not...looking at you." He glues his eyes forward with the pitiful lie.

She rolls her eyes but doesn't press the matter. Maybe being caught was enough to get his attention to stay in one spot; in front of them preferably. A second later he slowed their pace to a leisurely stroll. She was almost shocked but sensed he had a question or two waiting to be asked.

"Commander," she was correct. And here they come, "that body on the cell floor....who was it?"

He spoke every word carefully, like he was walking on glass to get the question out. The way she had looked at it, it was like that person had been her entire world.

"No one I knew," she coughs, raising a hand to cover it. Warmth splatters across her burned palm. The burn screamed, wanting something cold and not hot. She pulls it back to look at the blood covering her palm like a glove.

Keith looks over at it too, picking up the pace once more. He wanted an answer but now wasn't the time to push for it, "let's go before you start coughing up something important."

"You'll just need to stay in for a few hours," Allura says while typing something into the side of the healing pod.

It looked more like a torture chamber to Trip, and she had to wear a white suit with it that was not covered in the blood still leaking from some cuts. But nothing could be worse than going back to Haggar's 'persecution room,' in her opinion. She would take the unknown over the known.

"Most of the wounds have begun the healing process on their own," Coran waves a flashlight in her eyes as she sat on a stool Allura had dragged over when she saw Keith carrying her, "which means it won't take long to complete it using Altean technology."

Keith had remained silent as soon as he had entered the room while dragging her. He could've walked out whenever he wanted, there was no policy stating he had to stay there the entire time she was getting a checkup.

The doors slid open, revealing all four other paladins in their uniforms. All gave different looks of shock when they saw her state. No one looked like they planned on commenting on her looks until Lance came in last.

He looked her up and down, "wow, you look terrible, comandante," the last word he spoke in a language Trip didn't understand. And she knew many languages. It was her job to know them to speak to refugees that she agreed to take in. She stared at him blankly and he hurried took it as an irritated stare, "Sorry, commander."

Coran was wrapping a band around her arm while they spoke. She glanced down to see what he was doing, and at that moment every paladin near Lance took a hit at him. Pidge went for his stomach, Hunk did a soft but stern arm punch and Shiro whacked the back of his head.

"Ow ow ow! I said sorry!" Lance chants to them.

Coran slides the band off after a moment. Trip wasn't sure what it did but apparently, it did it right. Allura approaches her side to lift her up. Another set of footsteps linger behind her as she shakily stands. She recognized the heaviness in the heels of Keith. He didn't speak from behind her to announce himself, but followed as a second pair of hands in case she stumbled on the short walk to the pod. Trip resists the urge to insist she was fine and tell everyone to scatter so she could focus on something else besides all the eyes on her.

Allura helps her stand in the pod and lean against the back. Everyone begins crowding around the door to see her go under. She figured there was no point in telling them. When she was asleep they would all do what they wanted to, anyway.

"Well, Lance," Trip comments as she steadies herself against the pod walls, "even like this I could kick your ass."

The Cuban grins mischievously up at her, "I'm hearing a challenge there, commander," he snickers and crosses his arms, making sure to flex to show off his biceps, "and I accept. But to make it easier for you, let's wait until you're healed."

Trip shrugs, sending him a small smile, "your loss."

Allura steps between their bet with words that Trip had been wanting to hear for four weeks and then some, "while you're asleep, commander, we'll set course for Olympia. You'll be home soon."

The doors slid shut, and the air grew thicker. From when Coran explained the pod to her, she knew it was just to put her asleep so the pod could get to work and heal her.

For once, it wasn't scary going into the blackness. She felt calm because when she woke up she would finally be on her way home.

With the commander healing, team Voltron shared looks of relief. Weeks and weeks of searching, convincing Haron to give them more time before declaring war on them and avoiding the eyes of Zarkon had all finally paid off.

"ya know for a second there I thought the Olympians would wipe us out," Lance blurts out, "guess we can tell Harron that we got their commander back."

Shiro nods, "I'll get on that. Someone should stay here for when she wakes up," no one stepped up immediately, or at all. Usually, when people came out of the pods they were confused. And she was a trained soldier. Her in a spur of frenzied confusion could not end well for anyone who was near.

He continues walking, "nobody get too excited."

It turned into a race of who could get out of there the fastest. Lance was first to run out the door, "I have something to clean!"

Followed by pidge, "I have a new project for green that just can't wait," she walked out as fast as she could without seeming like she was running away.

"I promised Pidge I'd help with the new...thing!" Hunk scuttled away and out the door behind everyone else.

Now the Alteans and Keith were left by the pod. It was obvious both Alteans had somewhere else to be. Allura probably wanted to be with Shiro when he made the call to the Olympians, and who knows where Coran wanted to be. Maybe to polish something or make sure the castle was in perfect condition. He was OCD about the castle being at its best all the time. And Keith, well he had nothing to do really. Training was something that could be caught up on, he had no hobbies that contributed to the team, and he didn't own any possession to keep in shape besides his lion. And red was doing perfectly.

He grabs the chair that the wounded Olympian had been sitting in with his foot. He pulls it over to him, sitting down on it to get comfortable.

"You guys can go," he says to the pair of Alteans, "I'll stay here and call if anything changes."

There was no argument from one of them, "Good!" Coran jumped up and clapped his hands together, "I'm going to see how the castle's defenses are doing!"

And he was off. Allura hesitated to leave, her crystal blue eyes darted between the pod and Keith. She was wary of what would happen if Trip came out of the pod in defense mode. Not that Keith couldn't handle himself, but he probably wouldn't last long against her running on full strength.

He nods towards the door, leaning back against the chair, "you can go, princess. I won't kill her,"

She shakes her head, hands folded in front of her. She seemed to always be stuck in a professional state of mind. He supposed it came with being a princess. Raised to be diplomatic and lead an entire planet. When he thought about it like that, she and Trip were similar. Maybe she felt more comfortable watching over her for that reason.

"Unless you want to stay here for the next 3 hours?" He asks in confusion. It wasn't a fun time for anyone, not even him. But he was willing to take one for the team. He begins to stand up to allow her to sit.

"Oh, no!" He sits back down, "I must see that the Olympians are at ease now. I'm just...worried."

When she didn't elaborate, he stares at her blankly, "...about...."

"Well, when I saw the videos of Trip's training, I also saw an...altercation between the two of you," she seemed pleased with her choice of words and how she approached the subject, and she patiently waited to see how he would respond.

He remembered it clearly. It was the first time he had seen any clear emotion in her. It was anger. And the second was heartbreak. The third was happiness. He had a suspicion, though a very small one, that she was deeper than the Olympian leader she made herself out to be. She couldn't be made up of anger and discipline, there was more that went into a person. Now he had seen it.

He shrugged casually as he remembered the encounter, "that was before," he says honestly.

"Before what?" The princess wouldn't move until she was sure that no fights would happen as soon as the pod doors opened. In the footage, Trip may have threatened first, but Keith had said something to provoke her. Allura figured out he had a way of digging into people's tempers to make them as bad as his own. It was a trait of all paladins the red lion chose.

Keith didn't consider himself good with words in the slightest. He barely scraped by every English class he had. But he didn't want to sound like a total idiot when he explained why he didn't hate her anymore. Or at least less than before. He took a moment to think about how to describe it. Finally, the thoughts formed words.

"If you saw her in that cell, you would understand," he looks back at the healing pod and folds his arms over his chest, "whatever Haggar did, it was bad Allura. And it was more than likely to get information about us. About Voltron."

No one had seen her when she had come straight from the cell except for Keith. No one even caught a glimpse of her. But Allura imagined she looked much the same as she did when arriving. How much of a difference does a 20-minute fly make, anyway?

"Not what she did to her physically. Even though it looks like it hurts." He looks pointedly at a deep cut that had been made under her right eye. It was a crescent moon shape, and made with something dull by how ripped the skin was around the edges, "it's whatever she did to her when no one was looking."

He looks back down at the floor. He didn't want to see Trip when describing it, he didn't want to look at Allura describing it. Eye contact wasn't his favorite thing to do,

"she looked like she would rather be dead than be anywhere else," her face flashed through his mind when she had looked up from the back of her cell. It was like she wished he hadn't shown up for a second, "and she still didn't tell Haggar about any of the lions, about any of us. They would've found us if she did."

Feeling better, Allura relaxed her hands and allowed them to drop by her sides, "so you owe her something for it," she states knowingly. But Keith's mullet shakes side to side.

She was far from right. He didn't feel like he owed her a damn thing.

"I just respect her more than I did before," and that was all he had to say on that topic. Allura could tell from his squared-back shoulders that he would say no more. It was fine with her, she now felt comfortable letting him stand watch on her vitals.


	14. Chapter 14

_"Strike first or be prepared to block!" Commander Litarra roared at Trip from the throne, "do not be unprepared! You will be dead before you blink!"_

_Trip swerved to the side as the large war hammer comes sailing down where she stood. She barely missed the spikes that crashed into the cement ground of Heda's hut. She was tired, almost exhausted. But Harron didn't care. Any chance to crush her was one he would take._

_She brought her sword up from her side, slicing at his large hand grasping the hammer. The one she was about to hit moved just in time. She almost grazed his nail._

_His hammer was heavy, making him slow. She had wondered for years why he chose such a heavy weapon. It was nice for a flashy fight but not practical for a serious fight. But she could never ask. He never stayed around long enough for her to._

_Harron started to lift his hammer again, placing his hand back on the handle. But Trip moved quicker, wanting the fight to be over as soon as possible. She brought up her foot, slamming it down on his hands and the handle of the hammer. She didn't weigh much, but her force was enough to make him hiss._

_She pointed her sword at his neck, a hair away from the skin._

_She had won._

_Not easily, but she did._

_Harron glared up her with the flames of hell in his eyes. She looked away, not caring how angry he was with her. He was always angry with her. She was more concerned with the Heda and if she pleased him with her victory._

_He didn't show it on his face, but that didn't mean anything. In her years on Olympia, Trip had learned that showing no emotion was part of the job. He didn't smile or frown, he didn't say he was proud of her or disappointed in her. You had to read him yourself if you wanted some kind of answer._

_But Trip wasn't good at reading him in particular. Anyone else, sure. She could tell you their favorite color by how they hold up their head. Litarra wasn't an open book to anyone, even his second. He was a book padlocked closed with a key at the bottom of the lake no one dared to find._

_He grunted at her, pushing himself up from his throne. As he approached her, she looked up at him. It was normally disrespectful to make direct eye contact with Heda. But a second has certain privileges no one else in the town has. He stares down at her with stone eyes. She wondered what he was thinking about her. She had come a long way since being left by Ulaz, but was it enough for him?_

_His red cape trailed him like a shadow. It was the brightest thing in the room, but it didn't catch Trip's attention. It may be his symbol of power, but it was only a piece of fabric. He held all the real power in how strong he was._

_She wanted to be a Heda like him one day. So she aimed to please him. To make him proud of her progress. But she was only 14. And didn't even have half of the training Harron did, despite him being half human and bleeding the same as she did._

_"Harron, leave us," he commands._

_Harron clicks his heels together before turning, throwing his oversized hammer over his shoulder to leave the hut._

_Even when he was gone, there was silence for a few long minutes. Trip knew not to interrupt his thinking silence, no matter how much it was killing her. She could hear the crunching of dirt under boots outside on the ground, the squawking of the Farely Birds just beyond the curtain of the front door._

_"Trip," he begins finally, "you've made impressive progress since arriving. Even without all of the extensive training my soldiers have gone through, you have managed to beat my previous second."_

_"Thank you, Heda," she breathes. Her heart swelled at his words of encouragement. It only raised her determination to do better._

_He hums and moves to stand beside her, looking towards the throne before them. She follows his eyes and wasn't very impressed. The back of the throne was made of twisted branches of trees that were covered in war prizes of every Heda of the Olympians. But other than the decor it was just a chair with an uncomfortable back._

_He kept staring at it like it would spill some secret to him. The secret to ending the war? The secret to eternal youth? Who knew what he was looking for. But whatever it was, he kept staring to find it._

_"You know, Trip," he begins. He places his large hand on her right shoulder, eyes not moving from the throne, "the day Ulaz brought you to Olympia, I saw you on this throne. Older, of course, and stronger," she looked up at him over her shoulder in confusion, "but I knew you were the right one to lead them when I die."_

_His words meant a lot, of course they did, but that didn't mean they were any less confusing. Surely he didn't see that scrawny and scared child on a throne of violence, leading an army. She can barely see herself there now. He looks down at her with a smile so soft it almost wasn't there._

_She engraved that smile into her mind. It was the first honest and open smile he had ever given her. The first smile that held an emotion._

_"I stand by it," he tells her with a squeeze of her shoulder, "one day, you'll be the most powerful person in the room, and it won't be because you're on the throne." ___

__

__

__Trip's eyes opened as soon as fresh air was forced down her throat, shocking her from her resurfaced memory._ _

__The unfamiliar scenery flung her mind into the worst scenario. Haggar had finally killed her. Being rescued was a lie, and it was Hggar using her magic to give her false hope. Then to rip it away by killing her._ _

__Her legs were shocked by the sudden need to hold themselves up, collapsing under her weight. She felt herself falling forward, but was too out of it to catch herself. Her hands moved slowly to try, but her falling stopped before she could even raise them up all the way. Hands caught her, gentle hands. Not ones she recognized._ _

__She looked up quickly, prepared to try and defend whatever dignity she had left against whatever minion was in the room. Her fist flew before seeing whoever it was. There wasn't much strength in her swing, but enough to distract them while she assessed her surroundings._ _

__Violet eyes stopped her fist seconds before connecting with his cheek. He remained unphased by her act of defense, merely looking down at her as he held her on her feet._ _

__Relief mixed into her blood as she registered the white decor of the Altean castle. She was in the infirmary still, just coming out of the healing pod. She was still in the skin-tight outfit that was required to be worn. There was still some dried blood in spots, but it was still bright to the eyes when she looked down. She dropped her fist and stared below her._ _

__For some reason, her bare feet caught her attention. It was like it was really important to her mind that she had nothing on her feet. When had she lost her shoes? The question of the century. And obviously very important. For some reason._ _

__She wiggles her toes as if they were fake or would fall off at any movement. But they didn't, and her foggy mind was satisfied with the results and allows her to look back up._ _

__"My shoes," she says and looks back up at Keith, "where did I put my shoes?"_ _

__Keith raised an eyebrow at her question and began leading her to the chair he had been in for three hours. It was nice to pass the uncomfortable thing to someone else. He lowered her down as she looked around for her shoes._ _

__"Uh, you took them off when you changed," he explains "Allura took them with your other clothes."_ _

__She slowly nods her head, her matted hair stiffly shaking, "my feet are cold."_ _

__He held back a laugh at her tone. She was still out of it, and in a few minutes would be as confused as he was. But he enjoyed the moment of her seeming like a normal teenager that had just come out of surgery._ _

__Once he settles her on the chair he says, "Allura will bring your shoes with your clothes, commander."_ _

__She had previously been looking at the pod she came out of, and at her formal title, she looks at him with a wrinkled nose. Not disgusted, but rather confused for a second. Her mind was still on the memory she dreamt of. It had been like she was there all over again, hearing him speak to her and fighting Harron. Her heart still pounded from the fight itself._ _

__Keith walked away from her as her mind reminded her it was a dream. Litarra was dead. He had been dead for a year now. It was merely a memory of a conversation they had._ _

__He hit a button beside the door, holding it as he spoke._ _

__"The commander is awake," he speaks. It was an intercom system that broadcast all over the castle, so everyone began making their way to the healing pods._ _

__Keith didn't speak to her first, and she didn't speak first either. It was a tricky silence while she gathered her mind and pieced it all together. He stood against the wall behind her, occasionally looking up to make sure she hadn't fallen off the stool. But she seemed to be regaining her stoic demeanor._ _

__"Thanks," she says suddenly, snapping the silence like a dead twig, "for getting me out."_ _

__It was probably the only thanks he would ever get from her. And even though she didn't look at him while saying it, something about the way she said it gave away that it was sincere. He looked down at the white floor and shrugged._ _

__"Now we're even," he says._ _

__She gave no reply, and she didn't have to because the doors to the infirmary slid open. Shiro passed through first, followed by Allura. While they both greeted the commander with a formal handshake, the other paladins made their way into the room with them._ _

__Allura explained that Coran was steering the ship. They didn't want to give away the location of Olympia by jumping there. The energy given off by it could be tracked if picked up on a Galra radar. Trip nodded in thanks, not in the mood for much talking. Her body was tired, her mind was beyond exhausted, and her feet were still cold._ _

__"We're almost there, commander," says Allura, "would you like to change into your clothes?"_ _

__"Yes, please," Trip sighs, turning her neck to crack it._ _

__Everything seemed to be stuck in discomfort. She supposed that's what happens after round the clock torture. Nothing really feels the same after. Limbs don't feel right, some things don't feel real, the mind sees things differently._ _

__Allura left to gather her clothes, leaving her and the paladins to their ways. But Shrio took over the chance to talk to her pretty quickly._ _

__"Commander," he says, "I hope you don't mind, but can we ask you some questions?"_ _

__Her answer wouldn't matter anyway, so she nodded her head and cracked her knuckles. When Shiro said 'we' he obviously meant 'he' because he was the only one to really ask her anything. And it was all things she could give no answers to._ _

__"Did Haggar tell you anything about Zarkon? Their plans? Anything that she regretted telling you about?" he begins, "anything could be helpful."_ _

__Trip pushes herself off of the stool, letting her legs get used to her weight again and to stretch them out. Sure she had been standing for three hours in a healing pod, but she needed to move._ _

__"No," she says, "she didn't say anything about anything."_ _

__"Nothing? Anything, no matter how small it may seem, could help," he pushes for answers._ _

__She didn't want to think about her time on that ship for a long while. She wanted to forget it all together. She could feel it now. A lot of her had changed because of what that witch did to her. She had a new respect for every prisoner brought to them for refuge. And new ways to get information of any Galra she came across. A lot of them out there were weaker than her and knew more about Zarkon than they let on. They would squeal with only a fraction of torture that she endured while there._ _

__"She didn't say anything," she repeats, "and the guards were too far down on the chain of command to know anything either."_ _

__She moves her weight to one leg, rolling her ankle on the other to pop it._ _

__Desperate for information, Shrio presses further, "what about the ship? Why have a prison ship so small out in the middle of nowhere?"_ _

__"It was probably for high-profile prisoners," Pidge buts in, "it was only the commander there, and it was pretty well hidden."_ _

__"Then why was it so easy to get in?" Hunk points out, "I mean, the transport base was harder than that."_ _

__Hunk made an excellent point when thought about. Trip wasn't there, but it didn't seem to take much to get into the ship. A few shots and everyone scattered. Or they were dead. Still, she couldn't complain. She had been too beaten up to get herself out. Without them, she'd probably have lost her mind sitting in that cell._ _

__"No," Trip says, "too small for high profile anything. It was probably the most inconspicuous thing they had on short notice of getting me."_ _

__Allura walked in then with a bundle of clothes in one hand, and a pair of familiar heavy boots in the other. She handed them over with a large smile on her tanned face._ _

__"They were pretty torn up," she says, "but me and the mice have been working all afternoon to fix them up for you."_ _

__When Trip looked at the folded pile in her hand, she could see the stitching. It was strong and done in red thread to match her cape. The kind action made her smile to herself. She had put a lot of work into something that should have been tossed out the moment it was off. The princess was beginning to grow on her._ _

__"Thank you, princess," she says, "and tell the mice thank you too."_ _

__The princess beams and opens her mouth to respond. She's cut off by a desperate sounding Shiro._ _

__"Commander, you have to have heard something," he urges her to relive everything the witch had said, "Haggar was on that ship! She's Zarkon's right hand!"_ _

__His tone was demanding, aggressive almost. And Trip did not appreciate it one bit. Couldn't he sit and wait for her to be more comfortable before asking her about something she'd rather forget? A single minute while she tried to feel more like herself is all it would take._ _

__She turns her face to his, eyes full of rage. Normally, something so small wouldn't nip at her nerves. But with the past month, she was a craving to go off on something. Her anger wasn't because of him, he was just what pushed her button first to see just how strong it was now._ _

__"I'm well aware of who she is and where she was," she retorts, "maybe she did say something. Maybe I was too busy screaming to hear. Why don't you crawl on that ship and take my place so you can see if you hear anything? I guarantee that whatever she's saying will be the last thing you're worrying about."_ _

__All eyes were on her, everyone shocked at her small rage fit. It wasn't a threat to him, just a kick in the balls and a way to tell him to back off for a second. She walks past him, shoulder checking him as she does. Everyone's eyes follow her like she had an extra arm. As she disappeared from sight, they all looked at Shiro._ _

__"Well..." Keith trails, speaking for the first time since everyone else had entered. He was still leaning on the wall behind the chair where she once sat, arms crossed and eyes on his best friend._ _

__Shrio sighs before he can finish whatever it was he was going to say, "I know, I know."_ _

__He wanted to get Haggar probably more than he wanted to get Zarkon. She was the one who tore his arm off his body and replaced it with a piece of the enemy. To make him a weapon for the empire. She took something from him because he was there. Something he couldn't get back. She had no reason for tearing him apart, just that he fought to stay alive._ _

__Because he wanted to live, she tried to turn him into a monster for her twisted cause._ _

__He wanted something to go on to get to her. A weakness or flaw in her abilities. Something they could use to take her down. If they took care of her, it would be easier to get to Zarkon._ _

__"I think an apology is in order," Lance says from the sidelines, "just sayin' it might help the alliance that's probably not gonna happen."_ _

__As if it was the first time anyone had ever heard about the alliance, everyone looked at one another. They had all been so focused on finding the commander, that they hadn't stopped to think about how screwed the alliance was now. There was no way she would agree after they went diving head-first into Zarkon's ship, left her behind, and then left her to the hands of Haggar. Not to mention losing control of Voltron and hurling her into space to suffocate._ _

__"Damn," Allura mutters to herself._ _

__Pidge adjusts her glasses out of nerves for what was to come when they reached Olympia, "this whole thing could have gone better..."_ _

__Everyone waited for her to contiue, waiting for the 'but' that sounded like it would follow. She looks up to see everyone staring at her._ _

__"What?" She asks, "just saying it went pretty badly."_ _

__Lance puffs his cheeks, "thanks for the positivity, Pidge."_ _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Round two of me vs italics. I wouldn't put your money on me.


	15. Chapter 15

Trip felt better after a shower and she was back in her own clothes. Her hair was brushed and silky, her skin slightly red from the hot water, and her feet warm from her found shoes.

Now she stands in front of the mirror in the bathroom connected to her room, examining the scars she can see. Coran said that her newer cuts wouldn't scar because the healing pod prevented it on new injuries. But the ones that had started the process on their own would have light scarring.

The most prominent one Trip had found on her so far was the one under her eye. The crescent shape was made by a curved blade. It ran from her tear duct to the opposite corner of her eye. Not amazingly eye-catching, but not something that went unseen either.

She shrugs it off, deciding her looks are something to worry about when she's not Heda. The teenager who cares about her looks can stay quiet for a while longer.

A knock coming from the door takes her eyes away from the mirror. She walks into the room and says, "come in."

Thankfully it wasn't Shiro. Then she would have to apologize for snapping at him without being provoked. It was the princess, her soft smile still on as she walked in.

"Hello, commander," she greets, "you look much better."

"I feel it too," Trip tells her, "thank you again, for fixing up my clothes."

Allura smiled faintly, her hands linking together in front of her. Trip took it as a nervous habit of her's. But what did she have to be nervous about now? The Olympians wouldn't attack with Trip back in command, and she gave no information away about them. But....come to think of it, Allura didn't know that. She must be worried about their secrets being given away.

Whatever secrets she thinks Trip knows.

"Princess," Trip begins, "you don't have to worry. I didn't tell Haggar anything about Voltron."

Allura's blue eyes grew in size, and she unclasped her hands to wave them. She shakes her head, "no, no! That's not it at all, commander."

Trip hums, reaching for the leather covers for her arms that rest on the bed, "then what's got you nervous?"

The princess moves her eyes back and forth briefly, attempting to look relaxed and calm. Her hands move to her side to look casual, but Trip could see her fingers rubbing against her palms. The smile she sends Trip's way slightly falters.

"Oh, I'm not nervous," she tries to assure Trip with a very unconvincing smile.

She's not very good at hiding things, Trip thinks to herself. She lets it slide, however, assuming that if it was important then she would be told about it.

"I've just come to inform you that we're approaching Olympia now," Trip's heart skips at the thought of home being so close, "we've already informed your second, he's waiting for us on the ground."

It had been so long since she had seen Harron, she could hardly remember his face. And it wasn't an easy face to forget.

Trip tightens the strap of leather armor on her arm, stretching it out to make sure it was on tightly. She nods, turning to the bed.

The long red cape was laid out before her on the white covers. It wasn't as banged up as the rest of her uniform. No stitching to keep it together, no specs of dried blood that couldn't be removed. Much to her relief, she hadn't worn it while on her last mission. It was more for show than to be worn practically. So she stood out in a crowd and was recognized as the commander.

It was still as ridiculous as it was years ago.

She grabs it off the bed, swinging it around her back to attach it. The end only just scraped against the clean floor of the castle. And as she walked down the hall, it flowed behind like a red ensuing hound.

Back in the main control room, all paladins were restlessly sitting in their chairs. The opening door made all heads turn in that direction. The princess and commander walked in side-by-side, Allura going to her terminal and the commander approaching the large window that overlooked the endless star-filled distance.

Below the castle was Olympia. She could tell how vibrant the green was even from the distance she was at. The few large bodies of water that scattered the area were easily recognizable. The one shaped like an obese X was closest to their settlement and where they got their water from. The one farther out from there was an almost perfect circle and sits beside a small mountain that we use as an armory.

After missions, she never admired the planet. They lived on a beautiful piece of the galaxy. As they grew closer, she realized this. There were dots of the Polyflowers scattering the field where they had landed before, and past the trees were the tall walls of the town. She could see the green covering some parts of it; Ivy that had grown upwards and claimed those parts as its own. The Olympians had been there for so long, nature had begun to accept them.

The castle settled down on the tall grass with no hitches. It almost felt like they were still floating.

The giant window went dark, covering the inside from being heated up by the intense sunlight. The paladins all stood from their chairs, still being silent.

Coran stayed on the ship, waving as they all stood on the center platform that would lower itself down. Trip could practically feel the anxiety surrounding all of them, rolling off in waves.

The platform slowly fell to the ground, stopping and waiting for all of the weight to disappear from it. Team Voltron and Trip walked off, looking around the clearing for Harron.

Trip saw him first, standing at the edge of the trees on the back of a Jester. She recognized it as his personal one; sleek blue fur covering its wide body, decorated in yellow splatters that always helped her recognize it. On its head were the unmistakable large welts of Jesters. They had no eyes so those welts acted as sensors that can read heat signatures and sense obstacles coming towards them.

He walked farther into the clearing when he didn't see anything that was much of a threat. Trailing behind him was a line of more Jesters tied together by their leads and held by his large hands. He was as stoic as always when others were around.

She rapidly looked over his entire face, taking in all of the details she had forgotten while being torn open on the daily. His large teeth and underbite, his tan skin with splotches of darker colors. His bushy beard covered the bottom half of his face, and if his hair wasn't braided then it would nearly cover the rest of it. His kind was normally very hairy, and he was no exception.

When he was close enough, he jumped off his Jester and walked towards them. The trail of creatures followed behind him because he was still holding their leads.

Usually, Trip remained pretty in-control of all emotions. But dammit, she thought he was dead. She thought they were all dead. That allowed for an oddity.

Trip rushed forward, flattening the grass with her footsteps. Harron was much taller than her, and she wasn't exactly short, so when she went to hug him she had to wrap her slim arms around his bulky waist. Her head reached just below his chin in stature.

He wrapped his beefy arms around her as well. She was so small compared to him that he could easily do it twice. She looked like a child in front of him.

She took in his familiar scent. Smoke and fresh rain.

It must have rained recently. On Olympia, the rain never reached the ground, it dissolved just a foot above it into the air. The people always got soaked, and have water containers sit on roofs to catch it. But the dirt never turned to mud so it was always safe to take the Jesters out.

She pressed her face against the leather chest plate he wore today. The metal armor he usually wore put too much weight on the Jesters. The leather felt smooth against her cheek, sending a sense of security through her.

Since their friendship began, he had always made sure she felt safe. At first, he was like a giant walking shield between her and danger. He had mellowed down since then, but she could always still count on him to protect her.

"I've never been happier to see that ugly face," she mutters into the leather. To the others behind her, it sounds like mumbled gibberish (maybe in their own language?) but Harron heard it, and he gave a toothy grin, placing a hand on the back of her head in a show of platonic affection. It nearly brought tears to her eyes.

Nearly.

"Feelings mutual, Heda."

When the two pulled away after a second, remembering the paladins were still with them.

Trip takes a step away from him, smiling at him quietly, "is everyone okay? You didn't ruin all of my work, did you?"

He chuckles deeply, his brown eyes revealing amusement, "I'd like to think not, but come see for yourself."

Trip approaches another Jester that stands beside his. It was her's. The one thing she has that's always been hers. Everything she has now has belonged to a Heda before her; her clothes, her sword, her furniture. It was nice to have a few things that stayed constant.

She touches its muzzle gently, her fingers softly brushing over the black fur with white spots. The Jester recognized the touch of its long-time owner very well. From its mouth came clicking sounds. Usually used to detect their surroundings, but sometimes just used as a form of noise to tell something, or someone, that they're aware of their presence. Three deep noises echoed off the nearby trees and bodies of everyone around.

She grabs the long tuff of fur on its back, using it as a handle to hoist herself up onto its back. It hardly reacted to her weight. Granted, it's less than it was the last time she was here. Malnourishment will do that to someone.

She grabs the reigns from Harron as he jumps on the back of his own Jester. They both look at the group of paladins, who were all looking at them.

"Come on, paladins," says Trip, nodding towards the Jesters Harron had brought with him, "they don't bite," as an afterthought she added, "most of the time."

Every single one of them seemed shocked that she told them to follow. Then the surprise on some of their faces (Hunk's and Lance's) turned to nervousness. She figured they thought she was inviting them back to have them killed as a ritualistic sacrifice to some sadistic gods they don't believe in. And while this did irritate Trip, it was a considerably valid fear.

The Olympians weren't known for their hospitality.

"Well don't take too long," she turns the reins of her Jester so that she's facing the fringe of the trees. She looks over her shoulder at all six of them, "I expect everyone will want to meet who we have an alliance with."

She turns before she could see their expression, lightly kicking the front foot of the Jester. It takes off in a brisk pace, Harron following behind her loyally.

Trip was anything but stupid. She knew they didn't expect this alliance.

Their team had problems. But so did she, Harron, and Hailey in the beginng. Her and Harron more so. Now they're a force to be reckoned with when they're all together. They have a lot of potentials that she could see. After all, they did go charging straight in at Zarkon himself to save their friend.

They all had heart.

Different kinds of heart.

But heart.

The Jester's heavy feet left obvious tracks in the first, as well as a deep sound that bounced off the trunks of the thick trees as they navigated their path.

"Mo bu xenthu rikutu?" (they get their alliance?) Harron asked quietly while keeping close to her side. He was obviously expecting them to follow by the volume of his voice. But it's not like they could understand him if they did listen in.

She sighs heavily, pressing her knuckles into the back of the Jester until she feels them popping, "nao," (yes) she admits.

"He cou wen?" (are you sure?) he asks her as they hear the heavy footsteps of more jesters following them from behind mixed with the scared and uneven breathing of some of the paladins.

Trip glances over her shoulder to double check that it was the paladins who had caught up with them. After confirming it, she stares ahead once more. Her fingers brush over the silk fur of the jester that carried her.

She felt as if she was in a dream. Like she would wake up back in that cell with Haylie's body keeping her in the corner. But the clomping of Jester's feet under her and the melodies of birds around her eased her mind. You couldn't replicate the songs of Kashing Birds in your head. It was too beautiful to be imitated in a dream and sound real.

"Nao," (yes) she assures her second.

That's all she said. She didn't feel the need to explain herself, knowing that he would follow whatever she said. Maybe with question, but he would do it.

He makes a grunting noise as a way of saying 'fine whatever' and then continued his trek beside her.

Home was so close.

Finally, home was so close.


	16. Chapter 16

The pounding of hooves interrupted the silence of the short trip to the Olympian refuge. The Paladins approached them from behind on the Jesters brought for them. You could feel that their energy had shifted since being on the castle. It was lighter now after being told they had an alliance.

And it should be.

Trip had every reason to say no and throw them to the mob of warriors that would easily rip them apart at her word.

And yet they take a step towards victory against Zarkon.

No one spoke. Not out of fear and not out of discomfort. But more so to enjoy the peace around them. Miles above them a war was raging and people were dying. But this green planet showed no signs of it. Everyone was soaking in the peace, unsure of when it would end or how long it would be until they felt it again.

The silence was broken slowly. The distant sound of shouting grew louder and louder until it they could no longer hear the song of the Kashing Birds. Only shouts in a language Trip and Harron could speak. Though the language was indecipherable to the crew of Voltron and the princess, the tone was clear.

Everyone was angry. Very angry.

What was left of the peace was washed away as the walls of Olympia came into view. To the people who lived on the other side of them, those walls represented home and safety. To the paladins, they represented merciless fighting and stress.

As they got closer, Trip began hearing bits of words being shouted. The most common ones being "Heda," her title and, "death," their favorite word.

She couldn't help but roll her eyes and look over at Harron.

"Kane jathay cou va cou diau remor ne velo," (I thought you said you didn't ruin my work,) Trip narrows Harron eyes accusingly. The burly man glares back at her.

"Mo jathay xenthu Heda ren lien," (they thought their commander was dead), he moves his eyes forward to the gates once more. The irritation left his expression and was replaced with an amused one, "mo rav clar ze yeni," (they were ready for war).

Trip tightens her lips and swallows, "mweni je bajaneck." (sorry to disappoint).

By the time their small conversation had ended, they were at the gate leading inside. The shouts of the people inside were very loud, conveying just how angry and ready for a fight everyone was.

The gates were pulled open when the guards saw who was on the other side. The Jester trailed in like a parade. First Trip, then Harron, and the paladins and their leader followed.

All eyes fell on the commander as she comes to halt on the other side of the gate. The shouting stopped altogether as she jumped off of her Jester. She could hear the clobber of other feet landing on the ground behind her as everyone followed her lead. She held onto the Jester's reigns as she looked over the crowd.

The tears warming up behind her eyes were pushed even farther back then they were before. She recognized so many faces that she never thought she'd see again. And while she was happy to see them all and know everyone was safe and alive, she was still scanning the crowd for one face in particular. One head of neon pink hair that can't be looked over.

"Parl," (guard) she calls out and holds the reigns of her Jester out.

A young man that looked like a walking rock (he was from a long forgotten Balmara killed by the empire) ran up to her immediately, not wanting to make her wait after the agonizingly long journey she just returned from. Once they were gathered in his hands, his stone heels clicked together and he used his free hand to salute her.

"Kane gagin cou taun, Heda," (I'm glad you're home, Commander) he said hesitantly in a voice as rough as gravel. He sounded like he had never spoken before.

She looks over at him. He was very young, maybe 13 or 14. And she recognized him as Burnoak, the stable boy and soldier in training. She saw him during her morning rounds often when he trained with his father.

She nods at him, acknowledging him personally. Though it was informal to address the commander unless they spoke first, she frankly didn't give a damn. She was home.

She swallowed again, turning her eyes back to the crowd and scanning once more as Burnoak took the Jesters from the group behind her. But still, she saw no sign of her sister. Her heart beat a little faster with every sweep of the crowd that came up empty.

Haylie was fine. She had to be fine. Harron would have said something if she wasn't.

Right?

A sudden pressure on her lower back startled her. She snapped her head around in sudden anxiety, forgetting for a second that she was surrounded only by comrades. Her heart jumped into her throat and her hand grasped the sword strapped to her back. But she was put at ease at the sight of Harron. He was discreetly ushering her in the direction of her hut. She took a second to catch her breath from the split second of fear, hoping no one saw it as clearly as she had felt it.

As she began to walk forward, the crowd parted. They were all still silent, watching as she stood tall. No one could miss the power she radiated still. A month of imprisonment had done nothing to dull her powerful demeanor. At least not on the surface.

Before, in the castle, she had felt okay. Like the her from before, the Heda in her was still there; she just had to do some dusting off to get to it. But now, amongst the strongest army in the rebellion, she felt small. She felt...unworthy of being their leader. As they leaped to get out of her way, she wondered if they could see that as well. If she couldn't protect herself against a single witch on a ship the size of their town, how could she protect all of them in this war?

How can someone so weak lead an army of powerful people?

As if reading her thoughts, Harron pushed her along a little faster towards the hut.

The curtain acting as a door is shoved aside as she walks in, her entourage following her. It was as quiet inside as it was outside, though when the curtain was shut she could hear the crowd go into an uproar of unintelligible shouts. She swore some of them were in languages even she didn't understand.

Sauntering towards the throne that rests in the back center of the room, she blocks out all of the yelling outside and sits down.

It was like sleeping in your own bed after a long business trip. Sure, the others were comfortable, but there's nothing like the comfort of what you know to make you feel peaceful enough to fall asleep.

But sleep was far from Trip's mind. She leaned against the back of her seat, looking at the door where two armed guards stood outside. They were there to keep anyone bold enough to step in at bay. If she didn't kill them first, at least.

The paladins were all stood entirely still, unease radiating from all of them. Trip rests an elbow on the left armrest, her chin resting on her hand so she appeared at ease with the situation. But she was itching to get everyone from the room and have a moment to herself. Whether she would use that moment to cry, scream, or sleep was still on the table.

"Harron," Trip begins in English as to not dismay the paladins, "gather everyone in the center of town," she does a quick shake of her head as he opens his mouth, "everyone except the guards at the gate. We need their eyes so I'll inform them myself."

"Yes, commander," Harron clicks his heels together in a salute. His robust body turning around makes the paladins and the princess part to make him a path. They all watched him wend his way through the curtain they had come from and towards the crowd shouting in demands for answers that they would get but didn't want to wait for.

Lance leaned towards Hunk to his left as they watched the curtain ruffled closed behind him,

"Is it me or is he more intimidating than the commander?"

Hunk nods vigorously in agreement.

"When I announce the alliance the hostility will come to an end," Trip speaks and all heads swivel back to her. She was pressing her thumb down on her fingers to pop the stiff joints as she spoke to them, "they're just suspicious of you, understand that please."

Keith openly scoffs at her and crosses his arms as he turns his body to face her. It almost appeared as if he was challenging her.

"If anything we should be the suspicious ones," he says "no one knows anything about the Olympians and we're here on a hunch that you can help us against Zarkon. A hunch, that's it."

His violet eyes narrowed accusingly at her. Her hands clench on her armrest and their eyes locked.

Neither of them broke it, as if that would be admitting defeat. But the tone in his voice was irritating her. He was irritating her in general. She owed him nothing for pulling her out of that prison. He was only returning the favor of her saving his ass from the monkey of Haggar. They were even now, and her respect would be earned.

Trip leans forward, resting her elbows on her crossed legs. Their eye contact hadn't broken yet, and it was making the other paladins uneasy. Her movement forward made them all physically tense but not move. If this turned into a fight then it was between Keith and Trip. The red paladin would have dug his own grave.

"And I'm trusting you on a hunch," she says valiantly, "a hunch that you and your haphazardous group can get yourselves together enough to stand up to Zarkon" the room was so quiet you could hear a pin drop. Eyes were moving between Trip and Keith like an intense game of tennis. She noisily presses onto her knuckles again as she leans back in her throne so she's sitting up straight,

"Don't think me or my people owe you a damn thing for this alliance. I can still call it off."

Keith's hands had turned into fists at her words. Because she was right. This alliance was on her as much as it was on them. And both sides were taking a leap trusting the other.

Their staring contest was forced to an end as the curtain was flung open and Harron stuck his head inside. Trip gives him her attention.

"Heda," he says in English, "everyone is ready."

She nods and pushes herself up from the comfort of her throne, passing between the paladins and past Keith without sparing him so much as a glance. She had bigger matters at hand than a man bitter about her people seeing things differently.

As the tension was taken down between the two, everyone let out a held breath and shared an exasperated look before following.

It was silent outside. But the groups of Olympians stared down everyone in a brightly colored uniform like they were expecting them to tear down their city with their bare hands. There was no official announcement ground, no stage or podium like on Earth. Just a cleared out space with guards lining the edges to keep back anyone who inched a little too close.

As the guests of honor and the commander reached the center of the crowd, all eyes were glued to them with anticipation. The paladins were either there as prisoners or as friends and everyone itched to find out.

"Kane lo cou kcle ta meni carko nen soulen," (I know you have all waited longer than expected) her voice carried on the wind to every Olympian present, "nu kane preed fi gen vani felin," (but I return with only good news).

Everyone was on edge waiting for her announcement. Either way, a celebration would be happening later in the day or the night.

"ci kcle e rikutu fi Voltron," (we have an alliance with Voltron) she says briefly to all of the impatient ears, "kane nepia mo kcle wusay da pen nort ke ne sett fi da," (I believe they have proved themselves worthy in my time with them).

She expected an errupt of disagreement. Though all she heard was grumbling and a few muttered words that fell silent once more after a pointed look in the general direction from her. She may have been gone for a month, but she was proud to see she still held the respect of her people. It appeared Harron hadn't ruined her work after all

Everyone anticipated her next words, "beint yeni shall gala quen ke led jisset" (this war will be over in our lifetime) she tells them, "sian jah swar," (that's a promise).

Her last three worded sentence erupted them in cheers. Earth-shaking and ear rumbling applause and shouts shook the air. It was a short speech and probably wouldn't have had the effect it did if she hadn't made a promise. Olympians took promises seriously, and ones made by a commander were held to the highest degree. A broken promise to the Olympians is a signed death certificate.

If Voltron didn't end the war or come out on top of Zarkon then who knows what the Olympians would do to her. And who knows how much fun they would have doing it.

The three lines painted on her forehead suddenly burned with the power they held, and the red cape across her shoulders felt heavy with even more to live up to now.

The sudden screeching of unsure promises and joy swept over the paladins in a wave of shock. But no one ran at them with lifted blades ready for blood. People crowded them all, patting the paladins on the back and shaking hands with the princess. No ill will was detected with every firm shake and nod of approval. And as the paladins reciprocated, they had no idea Trip had just signed her life on them winning this war.

They also weren't aware of her slipping away from the crowd entirely with the help of her burly second in command. At least none of them were at first.

Keith prided himself on being observant. After a few moments, he noticed a splash of red was missing from the swarm of people around him.

He craned his neck to find her. A commander couldn't leave the announcement of an alliance so soon without looking suspicious. From the corner of his eye, he sees a wisp of red amongst the armor and swords. He walks after it, shaking the hands of those who stopped him and said a few words that he couldn't understand but didn't sound like threats. He gave them a half-assed smile and pushed forward in the direction he had seen her in.

Trip took the moment of celebration to sneak off. It wasn't hard to do since everyone was very occupied with the new allies and the promise made of them. Especially with Harron being used as a shield until they reached the edge of the crowd.

As they reached the end, Trip turned to Harron and said in a voice as quiet as could be heard over the commotion, "I'll be back soon, take the paladins to my hut when they're ready."

He nods, "and if the people want to celebrate?"

She glances behind him. The crowd was roaring and every face she saw was glowing in excitement. Children, elders, men, and women. No one had anything less than a smile on their face.

Trip racked her brain for the last time she could feel this much happiness in the air. It was so long ago the memory was fuzzy. She was a child, fresh off the refugee ship and barely spoke the language. Haylie was showing her her favorite celebration foods and teaching her the steps to her favorite dances. In the back of her mind, Trip wondered if she could still remember them. Would her feet move to the music on their own or would she stumble trying to remember the rhythm?

"Let them," she tells him, "who knows when we'll celebrate anything again?"

She turns without a response since she probably wouldn't get one. She sunk behind the houses and walked the path she had walked many times since taking her place on the throne.

She wasn't aware of the violet eyes trained on her cape or the silent footsteps trailing far enough behind her to remain undetected.

Or there's the possibility she did know about them but didn't care. If she did know, she didn't bother stopping them.

The back door to Haylie and Harron's home was just in view when she heard the commotion beginning to quiet down. But not by much. And it would be in full swing soon. She could hear the laughter from soldiers who she had never heard laugh before.

Keith was hiding behind the edge of the neighboring house she stops at, watching quietly. He wondered why she knocked on the back door and not the front. Was there a rule against it or her own pride that stopped her?

He heard the door open with a soft squeak of hinges, but he didn't see who was on the other side. All he could see was Trip. He could see her visibly relax; her shoulders slumping and her jaw unclenching. Her eyes softened and he saw a smile fall over lips. It wasn't a grin that would blind Zarkon, but his chest felt stuffed with cotton at the odd sight. Like the last time he saw her smile, it made her seem more like a teenager lost at war than a girl leading an army. More human.

Whoever she was visiting she felt safe around to show herself like that. He had known her for a week at most and knew she wasn't an easy person to make feel comfortable.

He peaks out a little farther over the edge of the house, trying to catch a glimpse of who it was.

Arms flung around Trip's neck, pulling her towards the door in a hug. He caught a glimpse of neon pink skin; odd but not the most alien thing he had ever seen.

As soon as Haylie opened the door, her bright blue eyes were overflowing. She wasted no time on making sure she was real or not and flung herself forward. She was shorter than Trip but that didn't mean she wasn't strong. Her arms around Trip's neck could have suffocated her if she held any tighter.

Trip hugged back and pressed her cheek to the top of Haylie's head. It was odd to hug her this closely again. For so long her stomach had been so big they had to do an awkward side hug. Trip knew what it meant now that it was gone, but she was very preoccupied with seeing her sister against for the first time in a month of being a prisoner of war.

"I can't believe you're alive," Haylie says into her chest, "everyone said you were dead! I knew you wouldn't let the witch have the satisfaction!" She sucks in a little gasp of breath to stop herself from crying and then lifts her head of pink hair.

Trip didn't mention that she nearly did let the witch have it.

Haylie takes half a step back, holding her taller friend at arm's length. The disbelieving, teary-eyed look leaves her face and one of agitation replaces it. Her tears stopped falling as if on command and her blue eyes went from shocked and happy to putting someone six feet under. She didn't even have to speak for Trip to begin trying to explain herself.

"Yes I know I said it would be a short trip," she says and places her hands on Haylie's that rest on her shoulders, "but a lot happened and it's a whole story."

Haylie huffs, shaking her head and pulling her sister inside the small hut.

Trip disappeared from Keith's sight and he pulls his head back around the corner. There was no doubt in his head that whoever she was visiting was who Haggar used against her. He didn't think many alien races had neon pink skin. He had never met a race that fit that description.

He turned from the house that he had been staring at for so long and the back of his mind buzzed in questions. Who was that? They were obviously important to her if Haggar had used them as some kind of twisted mental torture, but why? And how did Haggar know about them? Why did she have to go in through the back door?

He casts another look at the hut that held a big part of who Trip really was. Behind the commander front. But he supposed he couldn't have all the answers at once. So he turns from the hut and begins in the direction of where he knows to be the commander's hut and probably where the rest of the paladins were.

Inside the hut he had just left, Trip was giving Haylie a brief and vague rundown of what her month had been chopped up to.

"The princess," she's saying, "the Altean, was taken by Zarkon's fleet and to his main ship. We had to get her back but we didn't have much time to form any kind of plan so we went in head first,"

"You're an idiot."

Trip continued like the comment wasn't made, "it was going shockingly well for the state their team is in but we had to get Shiro, the black paladin, from Zarkon because I assume Zarkon wants that lion in particular and I don't know why. As you know I'm pretty good at seeing through the witch's bullshit--"

"You're an idiot."

"Yeah, I got that. I pointed them through the illusions and the witch didn't like that. She got just about every monkey she has on me. The paladins got out and I didn't. Simple. I woke up on a prison ship chained to a table. Everythings foggy after that, really. I think I purposely blocked it all out."

"You're an idiot."

"Yes, but can we get past that?"

A small cry stopped either one of them from continuing the conversation. It was rather high pitched and whining but Trip knew immediately what, or who, it was.

Haylie's irritated and angry look subsided. It was like they had both forgotten the new addition to the team in the chaos. The girls looked at each other with different emotions towards the same thing. Haylie was excited, practically bouncing as she realized what was about to happen. And Trip was shocked.

"I-Is is it a b-boy or a girl?" Trip asks in a small voice unfitting to her usually hard exterior.

Haylie's smile widened, "it's a girl," she says and grabs Trip's cold hand, "come meet her. Lord knows we've both been waiting."

She pulled Trip carefully, like her arm might snap if she did so too hard. Into the room with the single bed in it that they lived their childhoods in despite how brief they were. The cradle beside it was no longer empty with the stuffed elephant in it. Haylie pulled them both in front of it to stare at the swaddled blankets and who rested inside of it.

Trip's heart beat loudly in her ears as she looked down. The baby resembled her mother on first sight. Strongly. Bright pink skin and tuffs of matching hair. One tiny pink hand was reaching out of the blankets wrapped around her and holding tightly onto the stuffed elephant beside her.

The very one Trip clung to as a baby herself for comfort.

Another small cry came from the cradle and the pink hand tugged on the stuffed elephant. Her eyes popped open to see if anyone had responded to her distress.

Her eyes were the bright blue of her mother, resembling her to a T. She looked at the familiar face of her mother first, crying once more to get her attention. But then she looked at the unfamiliar person beside her.

"Do you want to hold her?" Haylie asks

Trip slowly nods, not looking away from the ray of sunshine staring back at her. Not even when Haylie picked her up, and especially not when she was slid into her arms.

She was so small. Harron could easily fit her in one hand. But she fits perfectly in the crook of Trip's arm.

The baby stared up at her in curiosity. She wasn't upset at a stranger holding her like most babies are. But maybe she could feel who it was that was holding her. Maybe she recognized her voice from her daily visits when her mother was pregnant. Maybe she knew it was her elephant she was clutching. Maybe she knew that the girl holding her would put her life on the line to protect her.

The baby opens her mouth in a yawn, her eyes squinting almost closed but not leaving her aunt's face. Trip lets out a watery laugh at her action

"Did you name her Star like you planned?" Trip asks without looking away. She reaches up one hand to scoot the blankets from her tiny face.

"No, actually," Haylie says proudly, "her name is Ella. Tripella."


	17. Chapter 17

||Flaskback||

_"Haylie!" Trip groans over the music, "I told you I can't dance!"_

_Both 8-year-old girls were to the side of a large bonfire as laughter and music nearly overpowered their voices. Heda Litarra had insisted a party be thrown because of the Galra ship holding Olympian prisoners being taken down. And any reason to celebrate was one the Olympians would take._

_"And I'm telling you, you can!" The pink haired girl says to her friend, "and you'll like it when you do! Now come on and try again!"_

_A new song had picked up but held the same beat. Haylie grabbed Trip's hands and pulled her out into the ring of dancing people. Her feet had the basics of it down but she stumbled over herself a lot, tripping others and herself. But no one seemed to get mad for once. They would laugh it off._

_That was odd. Usually, people were always looking for a reason to pick on her. She wasn't well liked in the town, after all._

_But with every person she bumped into, they would pat her back and move on with a booming laugh. And the laugh wasn't at her but with her. Also something new._

_This particular song was one that got Haylie's feet moving. This was evident as she swung them both around to it and hummed along to the instrumentals that she obviously knew well. Trip was very new to dancing and to music and parties. But she had to admit they weren't horrible. They beat the cell Ulaz had pulled her from._

_"Come on, Trip!" Laughs Haylie while grabbing her hand to make her go faster and dance along with her._

_Trip found herself laughing at both of them. They were bumping into each other and stumbling around like bafoons but the happiness was high in the air and nothing could bring them down. They had each other and a place to call home. Nothing else, at least at that moment, mattered besides staying as happy as possible for as long as possible._

_That must have been why everyone was light with her as she bumped into them. They had the same mentality. How long would this feeling last? How long could they make it last? All goddamn night if they could._

_So, Trip finally learned to dance. And she loved every step of it. Because when would be the next time music played? ___

__||Flashback over||_ _

__

__

__Olympia hadn't seen a party in years. But one was going in full swing throughout the entire town._ _

__People had moved their tables into the streets to put food onto because so much had been made, drinks were being passed around free of charge (both alcoholic and non), children were laughing and sword fighting for fun. Not to train but because they were being kids. Everyone's doors were left open to welcome company in and out._ _

__There was even Olympian music filling the streets. Trip even saw a few couples dancing to it._ _

__The Night of the Alliance. That's what everyone was calling it. Trip liked the sound of it. Like this night would go down in history. It made her feel like she had finally made a good choice as the commander. Why else would everyone be dancing and drinking if not for a good choice?_ _

__A bonfire in the center of town was keeping the streets lit long after the sun had gone down and drinks were keeping spirits up._ _

__She stood outside of her hut to watch the festivities. She couldn't indulge herself too much since a commander always had to be on her toes. And she couldn't handle her Bay Leaf Rum very well. Last time she drank she got her ass kicked during training the next morning. But she did enjoy the food and music._ _

__"Commander," she looks up at the voice approaching her. Shiro was giving her a graceful smile that she returned. He was holding a cup in his hand that was familiar to her._ _

__"Shiro," she greets and then nods to the cup, "Bay Leaf? Didn't take you for a rum guy. More like one glass of a Dutchess and then water."_ _

__He chuckles and lifts the glass, "if I hold it people stop trying to give me some."_ _

__"Smart move," she says, "Olympians love to drink and assume everyone else does too."_ _

__The party roaring around them filled any kind of awkward silence that may have existed after that. He didn't walk away so Trip assumed he had more to say but didn't know how to say it. He would get it out on his own time so she didn't push him._ _

__One song died out and another started when he finally found the words, "listen, Commander, about earlier--"_ _

__"Call me Trip," she interrupts him and sips the water in her hand from the old tankard, "I'm not your commander so you shouldn't have to call me that."_ _

__He slowly nods his head before continuing what he had finally worked up the courage to say, "Trip. About earlier, me pushing you for answers on Haggar. I want to say I'm sorry. I know none of what happened to you was easy and to ask you to relive it after finally leaving was insensitive."_ _

__He spoke like he had been rehearsing for hours. Trip found it funny. Was she that intimidating to him? He was twice her height. But she supposed she could also easily kick his ass if need be._ _

__"I'm sorry," he repeats, "and I hope we can move past it."_ _

__She gives him a polite smile, "nothing to move past," she nods towards the dancing commencing around the giant bonfire, "so enjoy the party. Olympia hasn't had something to celebrate like this in a long time, and you're one of the guests of honor."_ _

__He chuckles but leaves her to her own company again to rejoin his friends._ _

__Not many Olympians spoke English but that wasn't stopping the paladins from interacting with them. Lance was already surrounded by young girls and enjoying the attention he was getting as they touched his hair and armor. Hunk was by the food tables, trying some of every dish Sitra put out and giving input through head motions (he was definitely earning Sitra's favor by doing this). Allura was speaking to a few of the members playing music. She spoke their language it seemed and were in a deep conversation about his instrument. And Pidge was with a Balmeran attempting to learn the feet movements to a dance that had been done._ _

__Keith is the only paladin not participating with everyone. He was back against the huts just watching it all happen._ _

__But she was doing the same thing so she didn't spend too much time dwelling on his lack of spirit._ _

__"Ugh I'll never get this," Trip hears a familiar voice saying in exasperation. She looks towards them over the edge of her cup to see Pidge trying to learn the steps to an Olympian dance. She was visibly frustrated with the time needed to get her feet in the right places._ _

__Trip momentarily remembers Haylie teaching her the same steps. Pidge was trying to learn her favorite dance. Something she wasn't sure if she actually remembers how to do but wishes she did. Maybe, if Voltron does what they swear they can, she could see how well her memory is when it comes to dancing. Hell, maybe she'd even learn some new ones._ _

__She chuckles and watches her go back to trying to learn the foot movements._ _

__"Commander," she looks over as someone else approaches. White hair and a pink uniform tell her it's the princess before she sees her face. She's smiling at her as she stops to stand beside her, "you're not dancing with your people?"_ _

__Trip shakes her head, "I have two left feet when it comes to dancing. I'm of more use in a fight."_ _

__Allura lightly laughs, "well I suppose that's more useful in times like this than dancing is."_ _

__She was holding a glass of Dutchess in her hand and judging from the slight skip to her step it was her second one. They weren't very good for getting drunk, just making one feel light on their feet and to loosen them up. Partially why Trip didn't like them._ _

__"Sadly it is, Princess," she places her empty water glass on the table beside her hut, "why aren't you dancing?"_ _

__"Well I have someone to ask you before I get too involved in the festivities," she turns her body towards Trip and she does the same out of respect to give her all of her attention, "and it's more important than having a few more drinks."_ _

__Trip nods and crosses her arms over her chest while leaning against her hut wall, "then ask away, princess."_ _

__Allura's light manner seems to dissolve as she realizes her question is more important to Voltron's victory than having a good time is. She places her glass next to Trip's on the table and folds her hands together._ _

__"What you said earlier," she begins, "about the team being...haphazardous,"_ _

__Trip raised an eyebrow, expecting her to say that it was rude and uncalled for._ _

__"Well you were right," Allura finishes._ _

__Her other eyebrow went up in shock. The princess was agreeing with an insult to her team? Trip hadn't known her long but she felt like Allura didn't normally do that._ _

__"They are haphazardous. They are also poorly trained in any fighting and lack teamwork. I know this and Shiro knows this and they all know this," she nods her head of white hair to confirm that what she said was the truth. She takes a deep breath like it hurt her to talk down on her paladins, "but the lions chose them all for a reason that I can't ignore, so I know they are meant to do great things in this universe."_ _

__"I have close to no doubts about that," Trip says, "things like that don't happen by accident. But what does their work ethics have to do with me?"_ _

__No one was paying attention to them having a serious discussion. The food and drinks were more important to them at the moment than hearing what their leaders could be talking about._ _

__"I'm here to ask if you will train the paladins, commander," Allura says and holds her head high upon making her request, "I've seen you in a real fight and during training, and your skills are immeasurable. If the paladins learn from you, I have no doubt they'll be ready to take whatever is thrown at them."_ _

__Trip's expression didn't change as the request was made of her and Allura didn't take that as a good sign._ _

__"I know it's a big thing to ask," she clarifies and begins to rush out the rest of her sentence like Trip would swat her away like a bug, "and of course I don't expect you to make the decision on a whim so please, take your time. I and my team will be here all night awaiting an answer," she gives a small bow (an Altean sign of respect) and begins to back away from the commander, "thank you for your time, commander."_ _

__And she left Trip to wonder how she could be of better use to the rebellion. As a commander to the Olympians, or training the universes' greatest defenders._ _

__

__

__Suddenly parties weren't very fun. They were just loud distractions while Trip tried to think._ _

__She was in what she and Harron use to call the 'war room' as kids._ _

__There was a large table in the center with only one set chair in front of it. On it was a map depicting stars and planets of the galaxy they were currently focusing on. There were red and purple pins stuck in all around it and tiny holes in the paper showed that they were often moved. But the purple pins were only moved when Galra bases uprooted for some reason, and the red was moved when Trip thought of new strategies to attack the ships with._ _

__Her eyes were drilling holes into the map as she moved around the red pins, her mind moving faster than the speed of light about multiple things._ _

__These troops could take care of this base, she picks up a red pin beside the Olympian planet, but then we're exposed for a week there, she moves it back with a sigh and rests her chin on her fist, the paladins could use the training but so could this entire army. Maybe this troop could split in two and move here--no that's reckless, Trip._ _

__This was normally how she made big decisions. Moving around troops and rearranging their formations for big battles. It irritated the people in those troops but her changes always improved their outcome of battles, even though sometimes it was just a small improvement._ _

__Harron proved he's more than capable of holding things down while I'm gone, she picks up a red pin that was still stationed at home, and it's safer for him to stay here than to send him to train Voltron, she presses it into a new place on the map to the left of one of the few Galran bases, we have less protection here but if they can take down that ship then we have fewer threats._ _

__But she felt like leaving would be betraying commander Litarra. He wanted her on the throne for a reason. He trained her day and night to make sure she was ready to be on it. The risk he took to even make her his second was a big one. If she left she was throwing the title of commander on his grave and stomping on it._ _

__"Harron said you might be here," she didn't jump at this voice, though her heart did sputter. Ever since she got off the ship Haggar had her on she's been easier to startle. She looked at Haylie as she stood in the doorway of the war room. In her arms was a bundle of blankets._ _

__Trip sucks in a deep breath, "yeah," she says quietly, "here I am."_ _

__The war room was lit by a few torches around the room and an iron chandelier holding candles in the center. It was well lit so the commander could work into the night. Trip had always wanted to thank whoever made them put more lighting in here during her night brainstorms._ _

__Haylie's light footsteps walk farther into the room and to the single chair that was never in use, "something bothering you? You only rearrange troops when you're thinking."_ _

__Trip shrugs and moves her eyes to the small bundle in her arms. The small smile on her lips couldn't be avoided when she saw Ella fast asleep with the elephant inside the blankets._ _

__"I still don't know why you'd want to saddle the poor girl with the name Tripella," she jokes to avoid the original question. She moves her eyes back to the map and pins._ _

__Haylie laughs and looks down at her daughter to make sure she was still sleeping when she moved. She shrugs her pink shoulders, "well we thought you were dead at the time," she teases._ _

__Trip laughs quietly and nods her head, "that's the only acceptable reason."_ _

__"You avoided my question," Haylie brings up the topic again, "so now I know something's bothering you. What is it?"_ _

__Trip waves a hand vaguely in the air, "nothing important," she says, "I'm always thinking nowadays."_ _

__The new mother hums and sways side to side to keep her newborn asleep while she talks, "fine I'll figure it out myself," Trip swings her hair in front of her face to block her facial expression._ _

__Haylie was scarily good at reading people. Sometimes Trip wondered if it was an Eow thing or if it was just a talent she had. She could tell what someone was thinking by every tick of their eyelash at the mention of something. And when she knew the person well it was like she was digging through their mind._ _

__"Harron said the princess said something to you before you came in here," she starts on her magic trick, "and you didn't kill her on the spot so it wasn't an insult. Probably a question since you're thinking so hard about it. You moved squad 11 twice since I've been here and we both know squad 11 is retired..." she trailed in though and Trip prayed her hair made a thick enough curtain that she couldn't see her expression, "you want Olympia to have more protection because you're leaving again. With Voltron?"_ _

__"Dammit Haylie, stop doing that!" Trip says in irritation and moves her hair to look back at her._ _

__Her sister lacked any kind of emotion on her face as she swept her anger away, "well? Am I right?"_ _

__"You know you're right."_ _

__She adjusts the baby as she squirms in her swaddle. Trip couldn't see it but her eyes were open and looking around her unfamiliar surroundings, "you just got back, Trip."_ _

__The commander sighs and presses her thumb down on her fingers to pop them. She closes her eyes briefly like a momentary nap, "I don't know if I'm leaving yet," she says, "the princess wants me to train the paladins. They were a goddamn mess out there, Haylie, they need it."_ _

__"Then why did you agree to this if you knew they were so sloppy? Not to mention practically pin your life on them ending the war in front of the entire population? You're an idiot!" her voice rose an octave and the bundle in her arms wailed at the sound of her mother in distress. She sighs and falls back into the swaying motions to calm her down._ _

__Trip spoke in her natural volume as she moved another red pin on the map, "they're sloppy but they're...." how could she word it correctly?_ _

__"But what, Trip?" This decision wasn't going to end well. If she left, Haylie would be furious and upset. But if she stayed she would probably beat herself up over not going._ _

__Movement in the corner of her eye moved her attention away from the argument at hand. She looked towards the doorway and when she looked at the ground she saw a foot topped in white armor. She knew it wasn't a hostile but when she saw the red detailing around the ankle she knew he wasn't friendly either. Keith was proving himself to be more of an enemy than a friend at this point._ _

__She turns her head back to Haylie, who hadn't seen the foot moving and was still waiting for an answer._ _

__"A true warrior doesn't fight because they hate what's in front of them. They fight because they love what's behind them. And that's what they're doing," she picks up a red pin and begins rolling it between her thumb and index finger, "right, Keith?" she looks back at the doorway._ _

__Haylie raises her eyebrows and follows what her sister was looking at. She immediately saw the foot poking out of the doorway and rolled her eyes._ _

__"Your foot," says Haylie to him._ _

__There's the sound of a huff of breath being let out before Keith rounds the corner of the door. He looks a little sheepish at being caught when he notices the baby being held in Haylie's arms._ _

__"I was looking...for the bathroom?" he says. It comes out as a question._ _

__Trip looks down at the map and puts the pin back where she found it, "what do you think Keith?" she asks, taking both him and Haylie by surprise by her calmness towards being spied on, "Squad 11. Useful distance shooters on their ship but equally as useful in hand-to-hand on the ground. Keep them in one spot or move them to the front lines?"_ _

__From his stance in the doorway, he can see the map behind Haylie and noticed the pin Trip was tapping._ _

__"Do you want me to lie or do you want my honest opinion?" He snarkily asks._ _

__Haylie looked between him and her sister, a smirk playing on the ends of her lips._ _

__"Would I have asked if I wanted a lie?" Trip says without looking away from the map._ _

__Keith looks from the map to her. He understood what she was really getting at. Should she come and train Voltron or should she stay and fight here? But what he didn't understand was why she was asking him for an opinion. His words would surely go in one ear and out the other._ _

__"You seem to have plenty of protection on Olympia already," he says honestly, "between the squads already there and the people on the ground. But the longer you let the Galra bases stay so close the longer they have to find you here."_ _

__She nods her head as she took in his words and picks up a red pin that had been moved around endlessly in the few hours she'd been in there. Haylie was now almost grinning as she looked between the two of them._ _

__"Yeah," Trip hums, "good point," she chews her bottom lip and lays the pin down. She stands up straight and pops her knuckles one more time, "then I guess we should get back to the party."_ _

__Keith was waiting for her to blow up and tell him to get out and never spy on her again. He wouldn't be surprised if she threatened him. He was just curious when he saw the familiar pink skin walking inside the commander's hut. He wasn't expecting her to be carrying a baby and talking to Trip like she had known her for years._ _

__And he didn't expect to be caught by something as dumb as his foot sticking out too far._ _

__She walks past him without a word. The air that followed smelled like vanilla and wood smoke. It wasn't strong but it was pleasant. He spared a look at Haylie and her, now sleeping, baby. She was wearing a devious grin as she looked back at him. Awkwardly he takes a step back._ _

__"Uh...sorry," he says to her before following Trip out of the hut and back to the party._ _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Round three of hoping the italics work


	18. Chapter 18

"Rise and shine paladins!" Princess Allura's accent sounds around the castle through the intercom, "meet in the training deck in 10 dobashes!"

Trip and the princess were already on the training deck helping Coran adjust the system. Coran thought some of the training levels had acquired some bugs over the last 10,000 years and used Trip's presence to test them.

"Training level 35 looks like it has a few errors," Coran says as he stares at the panel in the wall that was buzzing with altean words and numbers, "it seems to be skipping over the 'no fatal blows' part of its code. Trip?"

"Training level thirty-five!" She calls out and spins the sword in her hand to loosen her wrist.

She couldn't see where the centry would come from so she listened for a signal. It came from behind her. A quiet buzzing noise of the centry descending to the ground. She turns on her heel, steel sword raised to block the glowing blue one coming at her head.

She dives left and slides her sword out from under the centrys. Its blade hits the ground and swings right from there to get her side. She curved her back to avoid being sliced open. It hardly gave her a second to regain balance before lifting its arms with the sword in its grasp. It lunged straightforward this time, going for her head and not seeming to care that if it had been anyone else who hadn't had years of experience, they would be dead.

She bends forward so the blade goes over her back, slashing her sword at its feet. She successfully knocks one foot out, catching it off guard like it thought she wouldn't fight back. It stumbles backward in a fall, catching itself with its hands before completely hitting the ground.

Trip stands up and brings the sword around to above her head in the same swing that she took him down in. Her blade sliced cleanly through its torso before it had a chance to fight back. It shattered into blue pieces in the air before disappearing completely.

Coran hums to himself as he looks over the panel, "I see the problem," he says and begins typing away on it.

Trip waits quietly for either the paladins to show up, or Coran to mention another level that wasn't acting right.

The former came first.

The door hissed as it slid open, revealing only one fully awake paladin and the rest barely functioning. Shiro was the only one even in proper uniform, looking like he had been awake for hours and was ready to train.

Allura groaned at the state of the rest of them. Lance was still sporting a facemask and blue lion slippers. Hunk's headband was tied on the side and slipping off with every second that passed. Pidge's glasses were smudged from her hand going under them to rub her eyes. Keith was half-decent and at least was dressed in normal clothes but his hair stuck up in just about every direction except down.

Trip had stayed on Olympia the previous night before joining the Castle of Lions early in the morning. She was wearing her training gear; a black tank top and a pair of black skin-tight pants. Her sword sheath was still strapped around her back and both dagger holsters around her thighs. Her hair was in a neat ponytail on the top of her head. She looked well rested when in reality she had slept for 20 minutes before images of dull blades and muffled screams invaded her mind.

She was tired, but sleeping just exhausted her more.

The eyes of the paladins fell on their new trainer and all seemed shocked at her presence. The castle was currently in space and, by now, far away from Olympia.

Keith had known the offer was in the air for her to train them. But he hadn't expected her to actually take it. Had she taken his words into consideration or did she simply get tired of leading an army of savages? He doubted she had even heard what he said last night.

"Commander?" Pidge says in a groggy voice, wondering if she was just imagining her standing there, "what are you doing here?"

"Trip is doing us all a big favor," Allura says with a joyful buzz to her voice, "she's taken time away from her planet to come and train you all."

She hadn't been expecting any excitement from them about it. Trip knew they weren't friends, just people fighting the same fight for the same reasons; to protect what they love. So she didn't take it to heart when no one said anything and they all stared at her. Some eyes held fear for how hard she would make them train, and others were confused about why she would even bother going back up with them all. Last time she was with them on a mission she was taken as a war prisoner and tortured by a witch for information on Voltron.

"Coran is fixing the system in the training equipment," Trip tells them all, "we'll be doing this one-on-one with each other until he fixes it."

"It won't be long!" Coran insists from behind them at the panel, "I know every system in the castle like the back of my eyelids!"

She continues, "but before we do that, I want to see where each of you is starting," she looks them all over in an assessing manner, "So get dressed and you'll each fight me."

"You?" Hunk asks, now wide awake at the announcement of deadly physical activity, "uh commander can I just tell you that I am in no way capable of fighting you?"

Trip places her hands on hips and sends him a reassuring smile, "you'll do fine, Hunk. I'm not expecting anyone to land a blow, much less win."

"Trust the commander," Allura defends her, "she'll prepare you for everything Zarkon can throw our way."

Trip couldn't help but think the princess was overestimating her. No one had any idea what Zarkon had up his sleeve or if it was even possible to prepare for it. She appreciated how high she thought of her skills, but the truth is all she can do is show the paladins what she knows and hope that it's enough to keep them alive.

She places her sword in its sheath and says, "any volunteers to go first?"

No one moved a muscle like they had been turned to stone. Trip understood their hesitation, but this was necessary if they wanted to walk into a galra base one day and walk out with all of their limbs and the information they needed. She had at least expected Shiro to step up when the rest of his team didn't, just to show them that it would be quick and easy to show her where they stood in terms of defending themselves. But even wouldn't look in her direction.

Lance had his head in the opposite direction to avoid eye contact at the risk of being picked. Pidge was fully turned around and shamelessly staring at the ceiling. Hunk was nervously picking at his fingernails and bouncing from side to side. Shiro was looking ahead but didn't indicate that he would go first.

Trip was about to just randomly call on one of them when Keith speaking up stopped her.

"I'll go."

Everyone watched in anticipation from the safety of the sidelines as Keith and Trip stood on opposite sides of the room. His bayard was out to show the long red sword it formed for him.

"We're working on defense," she calls to him, "don't attack first unless you know you'll land it."

He didn't react to her words but she knew he heard her because he didn't go charging at her. He watched her every move closed from a distance like it was his job. From the bored expression on her face to the twitch in her left hand that she didn't seem to be doing on purpose. His eyes followed her sword that she twisted around to hold more comfortably.

Trip ran at him with her sword by her side. 

She was shorter than him, so she immediately went for a low blow to his legs. He blocked it and took a step to the left. She swung her heavy blade around and went low left. His sword barely got there in time to stop her from cutting through his pants and to his skin. The tip of her blade was a centimeter away when they clashed.

He had basic skills so far.

His eyes followed her sword and she saw this. It could be used to her advantage.

She lifts the blade up and goes for a center strike, readjusting her feet so her right one was in front. He didn't take notice in her shift of stance, or he didn't see it as important. He was focused on the sword headed for his chest and raised his bayard. As soon as they hit, he pushed himself forward to try and get her to back away. She was too close for comfort.

He could smell the woodsmoke and it was invading all of his senses needed in a fight.

"Don't focus on just their weapon," she grunts at him, "you're leaving yourself open."

He just barely registered her words when her left foot picked up and slammed into his stomach, pushing him back several feet and almost making him fall completely. He lands in a kneeling position, glaring up at her because of the force she used.

She goes to finish bringing her sword down on him, thinking this is where it would end and she would move on to the next. But he throws himself in a backward summersault and her blade hits the ground where he was.

She follows him with her eyes, slightly impressed with how quick he was. He took a charge at her in a bold show of confidence. She lets out a sigh. He had shown promise for a second.

She easily sidestepped the charged he thought would come as unexpected. His red sword missed the holster on her thigh by an inch. He looked up at her and she saw his smirk for a millisecond.

His sword direction changed mid-swing. The edge of the handle hit the bend of the wrist holding her sword. In shock, she let instincts to drop it take over. It clattered to the ground and he swiftly kicked it away from her.

As soon as her hand was empty she reached for the daggers strapped to her thigh. Keith went to force her legs out from under her with his weapon.

All of this happened in a few seconds. Everyone watching was confused by slightly impressed. The commander's weapon was out and she was working with two small blades instead of one. But Keith still was at a disadvantage skill wise. That was obvious when his leg-sweeping idea failed.

Trip jumped over the oncoming blade in a handless cartwheel. She landed with her legs bent next to where he was sure she was standing just a second ago. He looked around to see where she had landed before she could strike, but as soon as his eyes found her, the tips of both her daggers were against his throat.

They held eye contact for a second as he processed that the fight was over. It was brief, and had it been real he would have been dead the second he charged at her.

Trip lowered her weapons first and stood up straight once more.

"Not as hopeless as I thought you'd be," she tells him, "but you get too confident too fast. Think things through before doing them."

He grimaces at her criticism and pushes himself back up to a standing position as well. She walks past him and gets her sword off the ground. Her words could be taken as harsh. She used to think LItarra's words were harsh. But they were meant to build up skill and not dent confidence. She looks back at him over her shoulder as he's walking away.

"And nice work. Most people have trouble disarming me."

He didn't turn back around. He kept walking as if she had never spoken and went to stand on the sidelines with the other paladins. Her compliment has pushed that cotton stuffed feeling back into his chest. That feeling was nice. But he didn't like that it was her words making him feel it. That pissed him off. He was a mess of warm and fuzzy anger as he leaned against the wall a little farther away from the group.

She watched him for a second longer as she replaced her daggers in their respective holsters. He was naturally skilled for sure. But he had to learn to think with his head and not his pride.

"Who's next?"


	19. Chapter 19

||Flasback||

_The small girl stood in the center of the commander's hut, shivering out of both fear and cold. Her rags for clothing didn't protect her from the harsh winter of Olympia. She was malnourished, nothing but skin and bone, and every involuntary shake from the wind hurt. But she said nothing about her discomfort as she listened to the commander scold his line of soldiers._

_Litarra shouted words that made no sense to her. But even if they did, she wasn't listening to them. Maybe if she moved around, warmth would return to her limbs. She started to sway on her feet, slightly lifting her feet and then placing them back down. But her small movements were doing nothing for her fleeing body heat._

_The commander gave one last powerful shout in an alien language at the three men who stood unflinching in front of him. They all clicked their heels together in sync as his voice faded out. He was breathing heavily as he paced the dirt floor of the hut. His red cape followed on his heels. Trip's eyes followed it because it was the brightest thing in the room. And brightness was still so new to her._

_A week ago she had never seen sunlight or felt the grass on her toes. Colors were just things her mother tried to describe to her but never got across. And this level of cold was something she had never felt._

_For a moment she missed the small and compact cell she grew up in. When she was there, the slightest shiver from her meant her mother smothered her to keep her warm. She never minded being cold then, because mama never let it last enough to be uncomfortable._

_Now she would die for one of her mother's warm hugs. Or for her mother to just be here. To see what her eyes looked like before death glazed them over._

_"Trip," Litarra's strong voice made her realize she had gotten lost in her warm thoughts of her mother. She looked up at him and said nothing, still not sure how she was supposed to address him._

_The soldiers had left, and now the hut was empty except for the two of them. One trained-to-kill soldier with thousands listening to his every command because he radiated power, and one small 6-year-old shivering the meat off her bones from the cold. And she was supposed to turn into him one day. She was supposed to be as powerful as him, if not more._

_The commander approached her with heavy footsteps. She didn't back up despite how intimidating he looked. She knew he meant her no harm and was only worked up from whatever his men had done. He stopped in front of her and looked her small form over._

_"Are you cold?" He asks her._

_How much more obvious can she be about it? The shivering and teeth chattering gave it away. She nods her head._

_"Good," he says while reaching up to the clip of his cape on his armor._

_She scrunched her nose in confusion at his response. Was freezing part of some training she didn't know she was in?_

_He unclips his cape from his chest piece, swinging the heavy fabric around and draping it over Trip's body. It's so large compared to her that half of it dragged on the floor behind her. But Litarra didn't seem to mind that it would get dirty. He simply tied it together in front and pulled the edges towards her so it trapped her body heat inside of it. When it was secure and he was sure she would be warm soon, he looked down into her brown eyes._

_He uses two calloused and dirty fingers to gently pinch her cheek, "don't be afraid to admit when you're weak." ___

__

__||Flasback over||_ _

__

__Her eyes opened from the memory resurfaced as a dream. When she didn't immediately recognize her surroundings, she shot up with a harsh gasp and reached for the sword that was always rested near her sleeping place._ _

__Those weren't her blankets, this didn't smell like her home, and those voices weren't ones she recognized off the top of her head._ _

__Just as her hand circled the handle of her sword, the night of the alliance came rushing back to her. The bonfire light, the princess' request, accepting that request and climbing onto the ship with the rest of the paladins that same night when the party finally came to an end. It happened so fast her mind had forgotten about it all as soon as she laid down._ _

__She lets go of her sword with a sigh and then looks around the room that would be hers until her job was done._ _

__She wasn't in her usual sleeping attire. This was a soft white dress that reached her knees. It was very light and felt like she was wearing almost nothing at all. It had taken her forever to fall asleep in it. If they were attacked while they slept then what kind of protection is this supposed to provide?_ _

__She sighs and pushes herself up to her feet, trying to block out the voices in the hallway beyond her door. It was probably relatively early for them, but Trip knew it was probably early afternoon on Olympia. She always slept a little later after a tiring day even though it pissed her off. She had much better things to do with her mornings than catch up on lost sleep._ _

__She changed into the clothes she had that were considered normal. Her uniform and cape weren't needed on the castle since she wasn't a commander up here. She was just a highly trained soldier helping the defenders of the universe. She was in charge of their training and nothing else._ _

__That felt odd._ _

__Not being in charge of the well-being of everyone around her was almost unsettling. If she's not worried about an entire population that's depending on her then what is she suppose to do?_ _

__Well, each paladin did need a custom training plan. They were all at different levels of skill when it came to fighting._ _

__She thinks about how she would go about this as she wraps her guards around her forearms._ _

__Shiro was the farthest along, and would probably be the easiest to work with. He was skilled and observant in a fight; his only flaw is that he hesitates to execute whatever plan he has in his head. He thinks about it so much that he thinks himself out of doing it._ _

__Keith was the opposite. He also had a decent start on his fellow paladins, but god he was a pain in the ass. He refused to listen to what Trip told him, sometimes just ignoring her completely when up against the bots. He rushed into every fight thinking his sword would solve all his problems._ _

__How do you train someone with their head in their ass? Trip thinks to herself as she tightens the last strap on her leather forearm guard. If every day was like the first then she would end up killing him before the war did._ _

__She straps her sword to her back and hits a few buttons beside her door. It slides open almost silently to reveal the exact boy she had been thinking of seconds before. He was walking after a determined-looking Coran._ _

__"Do you think the Galra have been to Earth and no one knew?" He's asking, still oblivious to her presence only steps away from him._ _

__He was bothered by something on his mind. Trip could tell as soon as she saw how he was walking after Coran. A few steps behind in a hesitant way, like he would run from the question he just asked. And he was clutching in his hand a knife. Too big to consider it a dagger but too small to bring into a real battle._ _

__Trip meant to just skim her eyes past him entirely and go on her way to the training deck. But she took a second glance at the blade he held in his hand like a lifeline. From the brief and limited glance she had at it, she thought she recognized the craftsmanship._ _

__"You would know if the Galra were there," Coran laughs, "they aren't subtle when taking over planets."_ _

__"But the blue lion was there," Keith continues, "and no one knew about it."_ _

__As he finished his single sentence argument, the door down the hall that he was in front of slid open. A very suspicious looking Lance in a robe and facemask stared him down with crossed arms. Trip smirked at the boy's appearance, not understanding what the goop on his face could possibly be used for._ _

__"Why are you asking about my lion?" Lance questions the red paladin, who stopped in his tracks at the sudden question, "how many lions do you need?"_ _

__When Keith stopped to converse with, or be lectured by, Lance, his blade was more visible to Trip. His arms stopped swinging, so she could clearly see the curved design of its hilt. A white strip of cloth was wrapped around the center of it, covering where she suspected a symbol would be that would confirm her suspicion. Not that she needed it. She knew what their blades typically looked like._ _

__Why did Keith have a knife of the Blade of Marmora?_ _

__Members don't let go of those things lightly, if at all. The only way to ever get one was to join or kill them. Neither way was easy, or desirable in Trip's opinion. They were valuable allies and good people, yes. Ulaz is proof of their good hearts. But joining them wasn't very high on Trip's list of wants._ _

__Keith felt a stare in his direction the whole time Lance ranted at him about staying away from the Blue Lion. But it wasn't until he turned around to go back to his room that he actually acknowledged the feeling. As a paladin of Voltron now, he always had a slight feeling of being watched._ _

__Trip stood outside her room still, mindlessly cracking her knuckles as her eyes stared beside him towards the ground. He was confused, knowing she didn't often get distracted from something she was doing. So he followed where her eyes had zeroed in on._ _

__At first, he thought she was staring at the ground like it knew all of her secrets. And he was ready to tell her to back off and stare at someone else's feet. But it dawned on him when he looked up ready to yell that she had no interest in the marble floor of the castle, but the knife in his hand that held the secrets to his past that not even he knew._ _

__He looked back down at it._ _

__The way she was staring at it churned his mind. Like she knew everything about it and it pissed her off. But after a split second of thought, he realized that it's possible she does know something about it. She had been around a few galaxies, fought Galra on every kind of ship. Unbeknownst to him, she had even taken over a few of those ships. If someone on this castle would know something about it, it would be her._ _

__Dammit, why does it have to be her? He thinks, Why couldn't it have been Allura or even Lance?_ _

__He answered his own mental question with a mental answer the next second._ _

__Because that would be too easy._ _

__With a huff, he looks back up at her. His mouth opened to ask her from across the hall if she knew anything. But her figure was already halfway down the opposite direction and getting farther. He started to walk after her, wanting his answers as soon as he could get them._ _

__Sadly, Pidge's voice echoing throughout the entire castle on the intercom interrupted him mid-step._ _

__"Guys, come and check this out!"_ _

__

__

__Beeping and typing sounds filled the space everyone was huddled in. Pidge was excitedly waiting to show everyone what she had found out, practically bouncing in place as she awaited everyone to show up._ _

__"Oh, I've seen this experiment," Hunk says as he bends over something on Pidge's desk._ _

__A small glowing ball was floating in place on a small platform, flickering unnaturally. It would have looked like a normal space-goo-ball if not for the flickering that had no pattern to it._ _

__"But why do we need to get electricity from a potato?"_ _

__No one acknowledges his comment, waiting quietly for the princess to arrive so Pidge could tell them of her discovery. She was still typing quickly at her workspace, muttering something to herself occasionally. At Hunk's words, she looks over at him in confusion. She was obviously very excited about whatever she had discovered, so whatever joke he made went right over her head._ _

__"What?" She asks and then shakes her head, "no no. I cracked the code in that space goo thing!"_ _

__Trip had almost forgotten about that. Just the other morning, the paladins were sent to do some repairs to the outside of the castle. While they were out there, what looked like soft glowing meteors swarmed them. Trip wasn't a fan of open space, not since almost suffocating, so she wasn't apart of the repair mission. But Pidge had said something about the glow looking programmed._ _

__Allura and Coran arrived before anyone could press her to elaborate on that. The princess stood beside Trip immediately, which was odd. Why stand so far away from the main event if you're one of the leaders? Trip only stood so far away because she didn't think any of this really involved her. But the princess was a very big part in the team._ _

__After Keith got Pidge to stop rambling about the code breakers she ran it through, she began speaking words Trip understood._ _

__"It's a distress signal," the youngest in the room states while turning to the rest of the team, "it's on repeat. Under Attack. Galra. Help. and then coordinates."_ _

__She was obviously proud of her findings. As she should be. Not many people see glowing meteors and think to decode a distress signal from them. Pidge's mind was proving to be a unique thing every day._ _

__Shiro immediately sprang into leader mode and ordered the coordinates to be loaded into the Castle's navigation system, "nice work Pidge. Everyone get ready, our next stop is whoever sent that signal."_ _

__Trip just watched the paladins file from the room to get into uniform, pressing her knuckles against her upper arm as she thought of a planet that would use this method to ask for help. None that she had met personally. And none Litarra had ever told her about. This was new territory for her, and it put her stomach in a tight knot._ _

__New is usually never good. And they had no idea if this is a real cry for help or a trap to lure any helpful soul in. If it was a trap, what was the power level of it? Could Voltron be ready for something if it takes them by surprise? Sure they almost went up against Zarkon himself, but they knew what to expect in that. At least a little. Here and now, they were going in blind with faith that this was a real distress call._ _

__Trip finds a smirk on her lips when she catches her mind whirring with the worries of a commander._ _

__You never really step away from the throne, do you?_ _

__"Trip," Allura startles her from her deep thoughts, having forgotten she was even there. The princess is looking towards her thoughtfully, "we better get ready ourselves. I can get you a uniform to keep from the armory."_ _

__Trip nods and puts a pin in her thoughts, "alright, princess. I'll see you in the control room."_ _

__

__

__"Olkarians," Coran was saying as Trip walked in, "from the planet Olkaria."_ _

__The planet was pulled up on the screen like a travel guide. Pictures of the city and its people were beside it. She had seen a few of them before when they freed prisoners and helped them get back home. She was never a part of the release team, though. So she never saw the planet they were from. She wondered if she would see any familiar faces down there. Or at least live ones._ _

__The Galra could've wiped them all out by now._ _

__"Amazing engineers," Coran continues, "builders of cities that could change shape with a wave of their creator's hand."_ _

__Allura, who was standing in the center of the room, adds on to his gush of the people, "they have an ability to control any solid metal. They could build a computer in a block of steel with a twitch of their finger!"_ _

__Trip walked farther into the room to see the pictures of the planet up close. The Olkarians she had met were very handy with tech. In fact, the few that wanted to stay Olympia were head of the armory. The things they make with whatever is given to them never fails to amaze her._ _

__"Wow," she says to herself as she scans the pictures of the city. There were even pictures of it being built. Olkarians with their hands on giant blocks of metal. Molding them into buildings lined with a green glow. They were surrounded by forests and trees. It was almost like Olympians, but it appears much more advanced than them._ _

__"When can we see the city?!" Pidge is almost bouncing when Trip looks back at her. She walks back from the screen to join the group, standing a few steps away from Keith. She didn't miss the look he sent as she did so. His mouth opened slightly, and then he closed it. Whatever he wanted to say to her, he thought better of it. Or simply decided not interacting when not necessary would make the whole thing go by faster._ _

__"Well," Allura says, "the signal isn't coming from the city. It's coming from the forest."_ _

__All excitment deflated from the green paladin like a popped balloon. Trip almost chuckled at her reaction._ _

__Allura took down the photos of the planet and they could see outside to the real thing. Large and most tan with a few large blotches of green. The giant attached stone rings were also a charming characteristic. It looked the same as it did on screen in the pictures taken thousands of years ago. At least from the surface._ _

__"Paladins," Shiro catches everyone's attention by speaking authoritatively, "to your lions. Trip, you ride with Keith."_ _

__Her discomfort at that went unnoticed. She tucked it away and resisted the urge to complain about it. He was the leader, he called the shots. She was just a soldier here. Keith, however, didn't bother hiding his discomfort about the seating. He openly rolled his eyes and grimaced as everyone walked past the two of them to get to the hangar._ _

__Keith didn't move to go to his lion like the rest of them did. Trip didn't either. It was just her and him a few seconds later, the Alteans having left to see the others to their lions. She turned to him with a raised eyebrow._ _

__"Are you ready?" she asks._ _

__He looks over, their eyes connecting in the empty room. Brown met Violet._ _

__"Yeah," he says and his head tilts a little to the side, "are you?"_ _

__She thought it was a question of her ability. Which wasn't a surprise coming from him. She saw him as someone who always questioned if others really had his back in tense situations. And she understood that, so she didn't take the question personally. She simply scoffs and responds, "why? Don't think I can handle myself after kicking your ass?"_ _

__Her tone had shifted. It caught him by surprise when he figured out what the difference was. She sounded playful. Like she was teasing him. A friendly joke._ _

__Her lighthearted jab at him was the most alien thing he had ever encountered, and that said a lot._ _

__He sputtered over any kind of response for a second, not sure if he should indulge her banter or not. He forced at least a few stuttered words out to get his brain to decide._ _

__"Well...that's....no I meant," he gives a shake of his head to clear his mind, his black hair ruffling against the back of his neck, "I meant...this is your first mission since Haggar."_ _

__The reminder dropped the airy smile off her face. Every scar covering her body seemed to grow hot at the mention of their creator. She reached up unknowingly to run a finger over the crescent moon scar running under her right eye._ _

__Keith watches her hand trace it perfectly. He knew she probably remembered exactly how the knife gave it to her. She didn't have to look in the mirror to remember each scar given to get information from her._ _

__"Three days isn't long to recover so none of us would blame you if you want to stay back," has it really only been three days?_ _

__It feels like so much longer than that. Every day felt like a lifetime_ _

__She didn't answer him immediately. Her mind was still fuzzy whenever she thought about the cell and the room and the blades. And the laughing witch. The memories were there, just not clearly. It was like looking at someone else's memories through unfocused eyes. She was hardly sure it really happened._ _

__But her fingertips brushed the rough skin that was tinted pink under her eye. She remembers ever curve of the scar perfectly. Yes, it did happen. Every painful nightmare she'll get of it from now on is a reminder of that. Every scar she remembers when she showers. Every question from Ella when she gets older on how she got them._ _

__"You're not weak for it," Keith's voice intercepts her thoughts. He spoke softly to not startle her while she was so deep in her own mind, and to not provoke a reaction for being called less._ _

__Weak._ _

__That word made her shake her head and drop her hand. She hardens her stare and glares at the red paladin. Her hands clenched at her sides and she shoved past him to the door. As he suspected, she was angry. Or at least she appeared to be. All past attempts at friendliness were gone._ _

__"Let's go."_ _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm getting a little too confident in myself with the italics


	20. Chapter 20

The atmosphere in the red lion was tense as they coasted over the forest of Olkaria. Trip was staring out the side of the lion's head, eyes fixed on the city in the distance towering over the trees. Keith could feel anger pulsing off of her from the front seat.

Her helmet buzzed with the sounds of everyone talking. She wasn't a fan of this communication system sometimes. She could never find the off button when she wanted some peace and quiet. And when it wasn't on her head, she never knew if something important was happening. Olympian's were only on when someone held down a button. No nonsense chatter.

"Why can't a distress signal ever come from someplace cool?" Pidge complains over the helmets, "I hate the outdoors.'

Something whizzes past the lion's face, right past Trip's view. Her head lifts from resting on her fist and she takes a few steps closer to see what it was.

"I like it out here," Keith says and turns his head to see what the shuffling behind him was, "It's quiet."

Trip squints her eyes as she sees a few small dots down on the ground. They were moving. Maybe animals? As she sees them raising their arms and pointing up towards them, she realizes it's a possible threat.

"People!" She says urgently, "aiming at us! Get out of the line of fire!"

No one reacted fast enough, or maybe Trip didn't inform fast enough. Whatever the people were aiming at them had already been fired. Dozens of tiny glowing green dots were whizzing up at everyone. They didn't look like beams from a gun, and they were too small to be from any kind of canon. The only reasonable answer would be arrows. But that wouldn't do any damage to a lion.

She hears the small tink-ing of the arrows hitting the belly of the lion. Confusion covered Trip's face.

"Uh..." Keith looks around the sky in front of them for any threats, "are we being attacked?"

"I don't know," Shiro's voice comes from the helmets, "but something is pulling my lion to the ground."

As he said that, the red lion jerked and Trip stumbled back. She could feel gravity pulling them down as well.

"Something got us too," says Keith as he tried to pull up on the controls to get back up. But his struggling was doing nothing as they continued to descend. Trip Grabbed her sword off of her back, twisting the grip in her hand to get ready for whatever was below them.

It was a generally soft landing. Shiro ordered everyone to stay in the lions for a brief second. But Trip didn't put her weapon away.

Shiro's voice flooded the forest as he spoke through an intercom system from the Black Lion.

"We come in peace."

Trip and Keith were gazing down at the small group of people side by side from the front of the red lion. She tilts her head.

"Are those wooden mech suits?" she asks him for confirmation on what she was seeing, "and spears?"

Keith nods, "we got taken down by tree people," he says bluntly. Trip feels her lips twitch at the ends and form an almost invisible smile with a quiet chuckle. He looks over when he hears it.

The smile fills his chest with cotton again, and his body sends a wave of heat over itself. He decided he liked her better when she smiled.

But the beautiful sight fell away when she spotted Pidge crawling out of the top of her lion and waving around the glowing thing in its container and calling down to the people pointing weapons at them.

"We got your distress signal!"

Trip loved the outdoors. She lived in it. She knew how to handle it very well. The animals leave you alone if you leave them alone, the plants they eat are ones you can eat, and follow the river when you're lost. Every forest proved to be the same on every planet.

This one was just the same as the one at home. It smelled of dirt after rain and campfire smoke. The comfort dissolved Trip's bad mood from her conversation with Keith earlier. It was entirely forgotten as they were escorted deeper into the forest by the Olkari leader, Ryner.

Buildings were growing from the trees around them, glowing the same green as every piece of Olkarian tech. Mech's and drones and weapons were made from trees and sticks they found lying around. Trip was examining one of the guards' sword when they came to a stop below a very sizable tree near the center of their civilization.

"It can be used as a close range sword," he's explaining to her as she examines the sharp blade, one of the few things with metal around here it seems, "but a blaster for distance, too."

She marvel's at its multiple uses, "this is amazing," she admits, "where did you come up with these ideas?"

The guard smiles, "Ryner usually comes up with them," he says, "the rest of us just modify it."

Keith was stood a few steps to her left, finding her excitement amusing. She was fawning over a weapon like it was a new toy. He couldn't stop the small laugh that burst when he saw her eyes sparkle.

She looks up at him when she realizes he was laughing while looking at her, "what?" she asks innocently.

He shakes his head, his feathery hair falling to cover his eyes from her view, "nothing," he says and walks ahead of her.

She follows him with her wide eyes.

That was the first time he'd laughed around her. The sound twisted her stomach in a pleasant way, though it felt foreign to hear a sound of joy coming from him. Trip had kind of thought he was incapable of feeling anything other than anger (maybe the occasional burst of irritation). But the small smile that he was wearing wasn't something she would complain about.

It suited him more than his frown lines.

Heat rises into the balls of her cheeks, tinting them the lightest shade of pink. You wouldn't know it was a blush unless you knew her. And she barely knew it was a blush herself.

She hands the weapon back to the guard who was trailing their group, taking a few quick steps to catch up to everyone else and hear what was going on. Ryner was explaining why the Olkarians were hiding out in a forest when they had a high-tech city a few miles east of them.

"When the Galra invaded," she begins when everyone is within earshot, "those who weren't captured were forced to flee into the forest to escape."

They were all standing on a balcony of a tall tree, looking out over the new city the Olkarian's had made from what they had. There were buildings and houses growing from the sides of trees, made out of bark and as sturdy as could be. Trip couldn't deny good work when she saw it.

"But our people are resilient," says Ryner with a proud smile as everyone admires their new home, "and we have adapted very nicely to our surroundings."

"It's beautiful," Trip says out loud to Ryner in a respectful manner, "your people are survivors."

Ryner nods and smiles at the commander proudly, "thank you, commander," she says, "If anyone can see the survivor quality in a race, it's you."

Trip's shoulders tensed as if remembering what she's so notorious for. Leading the biggest rebelling army in the galaxy. And she wasn't there leading them right now.

She remains confident in her choice to train the paladins, but the guilt in the back of her head would always remain for not being with her people in the midst of war. She was known for being a leader, for telling the survivors from the liabilities, but she abandoned her duties.

Her jaw clenches as the thought clawed at her skull like a rabid animal trying to escape its cage. It was foaming at the mouth and growling at her as loud as it could.

She was not the leader Litarra had intended her to be.

She unclenches and sends the Olkarian a closed-lip smile, not giving a worded response otherwise. Her hands folded themselves in front of her body, her back stiffening to be straight and her shoulders set back. But her discomfort when unnoticed by those around her, as they all carried on their conversation and tour of the forest.

It went unnoticed by all except for Keith, who saw how she was less visibly impressed with how they made their mech suits, and more lost in her own thoughts.

||Flaskback||

_"Heda," (commander) 12-year-old Trip says unenthusiastically. She doesn't continue her sentence from there, waiting for his permission to do so._

_They were in the war room together in the early hours of the morning. The morning of her very first battle with squad 11. It was a big deal for her, and nerve-wracking. Her first mission as the leader of an entire squad. 300 men under her command, ready to die by her word. She could ask them to slit their own throats and they would do it without question._

_That power shouldn't be given to a child, that's what she kept telling herself. But she had it anyway. Litarra trusted her with it._

_"Yes?" the commander says in English as he stares down at his pin-covered map._

_"Do you still think I'm meant for the throne?"_

_After six years with him, she had learned to voice her concerns. Hiding her insecurities from the person guiding her through them was anti-productive and caused more harm than good. It side-tracked her during training and made her second guess her commands during battle. And in war, those things get people killed._

_He raises his eyes. The only unaged thing still left on him. His hair was faded silver now, his calloused hands pale and scarred from years of blocking blades. He had frown lines on his forehead, his laugh lines faded. But his eyes remained the same to her. Warm and comforting and familiar. All the things she felt when she thought of home._

_He responded without hesitation or doubt, "I still stand by my choice if that's what you're asking."_

_She folds her hands in front of her as she stands across the table from him, her back stiff. Her chair was pushed aside. Sitting allowed her mind to race where it shouldn't._

_"You have no doubt in me at all?"_

_"Of course not," he says shamelessly as he twirls his finger around a pin representing their people. He examines her empty face. To most others, she looked as stoic as her mentor. But Commanders are good at reading people's tells. But he taught her how to appear that way, so he knew when it was a lie, "but you doubt yourself."_

_She doesn't need to approve his words. He knew. Of course, he knew. He knew everything about her because he taught her everything she was._

_He nods, "understandable, but unnecessary," his hand falls away from the pin at his fingertips._

_This didn't ease her worry. He sees that her shoulders remained frigid._

_"When you take my place as Heda," he makes eye contact with her. His voice was rough like gravel but warm like honey at the same time, "I trust that every decision you make will be for the greater good. That you will trust yourself as much as I trust you. Your heart is what I know, and knew as soon as I saw you, makes you the best person to sit in that throne after me."_

_She looks down, afraid to make eye contact with him as she spoke her next words, "but if I mess up? And get people killed. Our people or innocents?"_

_"Then that's what happens. People die, Trip. For good causes and bad. For no reason and for good reason. Sometimes, as commander, you play a part in it. And try as you may to avoid it, everything happens for a reason. People may blame you, you may blame yourself. But the decisions you will make, you will make with the intentions of bringing as many out alive as possible," his words sunk into Trip's mind to be implanted there, like many of his words did._

_He proved to be a man of wisdom every time they had one of these talks._

_"And when you have so many lives depending on you, that's all you can do. Try to make it out with as many beating hearts as you went in with." ___

__

__||Flashback end||_ _


	21. Chapter 21

"The entire city is closed off and heavily guarded," Ryner is explaining to the team of saviors, "but there is one entrance that we could manage to get you into."

The holographic screen in the center of their small circle was showing a diagram of the tallest building in the city. It was the headquarters for the Galra overtakers, and they knew that if Lubos was still alive he would be in there.

They had taken a once over of the land after Ryner showed them all how their mech suits were made. Only Pidge had been able to successfully create her own, the rest of the paladins not having a 'strong enough bond' with nature. Trip had just denied even trying it.

She didn't have a bond with nature, just a mutual understanding with it. Take no more than needed. And she didn't need a mech suit to get around an occupied city. So she happily hitched a ride in the back of Ryner's with Shiro and Keith while Pidge loaded up the rest of the paladins.

The once great city was now a hollow shell of its people. Filled with contentious enemies using what Olkarians they enslaved to build something. That much was clear from the video surveillance that Ryner showed them, and according to her, it was a weapon of some kind. A dangerous one. Anything created by the Olkarians for battle use was no doubt dangerous. Catastrophically so.

"There's a small opening on the top of the building," Ryner zooms in on the holographic diagram of their target, "it falls into an open courtyard inside."

She was speaking to everyone in Pidge's suit much like how they did in the lions. Only instead of helmets, it was basically an open intercom. Multiple voices could come through at once, and Trip almost missed the privilege of being able to take off her helmet for a moment of peace. There was no off switch in the suits, and she couldn't focus on their surroundings with so much talking.

"That's a long drop," Keith says out loud to no one in particular.

If it was as far down as Trip thought it was, then he's right. There's the possibility of them all breaking at least one long when they land unless they do it properly. Even she would have to overly aware of her leg placement.

"Maybe too long of a drop," she adds to his observation, "there's no other way in?"

Ryner grimly shakes her head, "I'm afraid not. But if you can all manage to make it in through there, you'll have access to the entire building. Security, prisoners, maybe even their plans for that cube."

Crossing her arms, Trip doesn't verbally reply.

"Our biggest problem is getting you there undetected," Ryner says.

Shiro shakes his head, "no problem for us," he says, "regroup at the base. We have to form a plan before running in."

Even though she wasn't technically the leader, Trip's mind still raced with every possible situation they could be walking themselves into. She tried to stop it since she was only a soldier here; meant to follow orders and not give them.

Still, as she stood to the side in the head of the green lion, she tried to think of how they could approach their enemies when coming from inside and above and do so undetected.

She lifts a hand unconsciously to press her fingers down one by one, getting the uncomfortable air bubbles out of her joints. The sound was probably the loudest thing in the cab of the ship, catching the involuntary attention of the paladins around her.

She was much less talkative than when they first arrived. She hardly spoke to Ryner after complimenting her people's will to survive. Lance and Hunk share a confused look as she cracks her opposite hand while continuing to stare down at her feet.

The lion approached the top of the tallest building in the city, coming to a hovering halt over the center of it.

Pidge would be taking the lion back to a safe position after dropping them on the roof. So one by one, the rest of the paladins and Trip dropped onto the roof. They crouched and surrounded the opening Ryner had pointed them towards, hearing the slight whir of the lion rushing away. There was hardly even a gust of wind to tell them that it was gone.

Trip leaned over the edge of the opening, eyeing the drop. She rests an armored wrist on her knee as she tries to determine how far of a drop it is.

"Do you think we can make it?" Shiro asks to her left as she reaches her other hand down to grip the edge of the hole. She could tell there were ridges going all the way down the sides, making this a lot less dangerous than she originally thought.

"Doesn't matter if we can or not," Keith comments. He was crouching on the opposite side of Shiro, "we're already here so we have to."

She rolls her eyes and reaches her resting hand over her shoulder. Her sword makes a quiet ringing sound as she pulls it from its casing. She twists the handle in her palm to make sure her grip is tight.

"Keep one hand on the wall when you drop," she says to everyone, "be ready to grab and stop if someones at the bottom," she moves her eyes up to look around Shiro and directly at Keith, "and don't fall on your ass."

His eyes spark small flames, but before he can retort, she throws her legs over the edge of the opening and begins plummeting. He huffs and follows her with his eyes, glaring at the wisps of brown cascading after her.

Shiro audibly chuckles beside him, making him move his irritated eyes towards him, "it's not funny."

His brotherly figure only shrugs before following her down next. Keith grits his teeth before accompanying the two of them. Lance and Hunk follow with mutters of it being dangerous.

He does as she had said, keeping one hand gliding along the wall as he plummets who knows how many feet. His eyes are glued downward, the wind rushing up and making them water. He has to keep blinking to stop them from drying out too much.

Trip watches as the ground becomes visible. They were above what she could only make out as a small tree rushing up at them at breakneck speed. Her fingers are brushing on every ridge passing her by, ready to grab whichever she needed to in case she had to stop. The wind was rushing up at her face as she stared down at the ground, only blinking every so often. Her hair was following behind her like a parachute that wouldn't open, uselessly flapping around.

Just as she was about to bring her hand away and fall the rest of the way down in the center of the opening, her eyes catch a glimpse of a moving figure coming just below them.

She sucks in a breath, "stop!" she whisper-shouts up to everyone, hoping her voice carried enough to get the point across.

She grabs the ridge that her hand was hovering over in that second. A few above the very last, giving her enough room to push her feet against the wall below her and avoid dangling into the room.

Shiro, who was coming up behind her, saw that she had stopped, and gripped just in time. He narrowly avoids kicking her in the head and probably sending her down to her doom. Or condemning the guard to his.

Keith, however, was blinking too rapidly to realize that both Shiro and Trip had stopped sliding and were motionless and silent. His foot came in contact with the top of Shiro's head, squishing the white fluff down against his forehead. The contact was enough to make him spin away from the wall and make Shiro lose his grip on the ridge his hand had found a home on. His slipping hand made him drop, his own foot kicking Trip's head and making her hiss.

Shiro grabs the next ridge his hand finds, using his free hand to rub where Keith's foot had knocked him.

Keith himself was in no better shape. When Trip lifts her head to see what was going on, all she saw was a flying red shoe coming at her. Keith feels it whack her in the face, but at the moment isn't sure what he's hitting. All he knows is that now he's upside down and falling the next ten feet to his death.

Trip lets go of her sword on instinct, reaching up to grab her nose that was freshly bruised. Her other hand tries to grab for it too, forgetting for a moment how high up she is and she has to grab the ridge below to not follow Keith down.

In the same second she gripped her nose, she moves the same hand out to grab the closest part of Keith that she could. His ankle.

It was a madhouse for a few long seconds. Shiro rubbing his head, Trip gripping Keith's ankle so he doesn't fall to the tree below them and give their position away, and his hands flailing to grab her sword that was falling with him.

Once she had a grip on him and the ledge, everything went utterly silent. The only sound she could hear was the light footsteps of a guard below them. Now both Keith and her legs dangled out in the open with nothing to do about it but hope the guard doesn't glance up. The red paladin is swaying slightly from stopping so abruptly.

Lance and Hunk were a few feet above Shiro (who's staring in horror below him), both watching the events unfold. If Trip could see them, she would see Lance's face nearly red from holding in buckles of laughter, and Hunk covering his face with his arms to try and avoid witnessing a catastrophe. But all she saw was Keith hanging upside down, her sword in his grip and his hair hanging around his head.

Trip can feel warm blood pooling in her nose from the kick to the face. She has half a thought to just drop him but stops when she remembers he's holding her main weapon. Angrily, she keeps a tight grip on his ankle.

He looks up at her with wide eyes, not completely sure what happened. First, he was falling and now he's staring up at Trip who has a bloody nose and pure fire in her eyes while he holds her sword.

Nobody moves as the steps below them freeze. It's totally reasonable if he heard any of what just happened.

Trip moves her eyes from Keith's shocked face to just beyond him, watching the soldier who came to a stop below them. He was staring in front of him, itching his arm with the edge of his sword. Normally, Trip would scoff at that, but she had more pressing matters at hand. Like the blood about to start dripping from her nose.

Unable to stop it, she just hopes the guard moves before it drips on top of him. What a way to go down. And if that's how she goes down, then she's taking Keith with her. Right now, she'd throw him under the bus first.

The guard finishes whatever scratch on his arm he had to stop to get and continues walking away. Still, she doesn't relax until his footsteps are too far away to hear and then moves her eyes back to Keith.

She lets go of his ankle. Unlike the last plummet, Keith was expecting this one. And he manages to turn himself around and land on his feet with a quiet grunt. He hit the ground a little more harshly than he would normally since the weight of the sword in his hand added a good few pounds. He has to bend his knees to prevent himself from falling backward.

Trip lands beside him on her feet, her hands immediately reaching up to cup her nose. It was throbbing in pain, blood dripping from the end, but not broken. She could feel the bruising starting on the bridge and wipes away the blood with her leather armor.

"Dammit," she snaps and turns to glare at him. He had wide eyes, though no fear for how angry she was. More like shocked that he actually hurt her.

Sometimes he forgot she was also human. She bled the same as him. Still, the fact that he was actually capable of physically hurting her shook him.

She rears a fist back, whacking him in the shoulder with all her strength and punching him out of his shocked state.

"Ow!" he jumps back and whines and grips where she punched him.

She jabs a finger in his direction with dark eyes, "you know what that was for!" she growls, "what part of 'don't fall on your ass' is so hard to understand?!"

He sneers at her harsh tone and practically snarls back, "the part where you stop two feet before the end! How was I supposed to know?!"

"You pay attention!" she reaches down for his hand, yanking her sword from his grasp and then using her other hand to wipe away the new blood under her nose, "my god, do you have steel shoes or something?" she asks when she pulls it back and sees the amount of blood there.

"I was falling at like 20 miles an hour!" he throws his hands up in defense and narrows his eyes in irritation, "what did you want me to do?!"

"Guys!" Shiro says as loudly as he dared in enemy territory, "we can fight this out another time! We have a mission."

They had both been so focused on arguing that they hadn't noticed the rest of the paladins join them on the ground. They throw equally raging glares at each other but otherwise cease arguing.

Navigating the halls is usually easy in small numbers. That's why the Olympians send infiltration teams of three maximum and two minimum. Never go in alone, but never be too crowded. Its easier to draw attention to yourself that way.

So having a group of five running around with their weapons thrashing about and threatening to clang together made Trip's nerves triple every time she heard an oncoming centry. They were pressed against walls in a neat line every time they heard mechanical footsteps. Every weapon (and arm) was gripped to fight in case they rounded their corner. Trip's sword tip was constantly positioned to swerve around the corner of the wall in case they came too close for comfort.

Luckily, very luckily, none of them came close enough to being impaled. And none of them rounded the wrong corner at the wrong time.

Pidge had located Lubos inside the building, telling them the correct turns through the others headsets. Thankfully Trip hadn't brought hers or it would be much harder to hear every approaching guard that could have gotten the jump on them. Pidge guided them through the halls perfectly until they rushed around the last corner after waiting out the patrolling centries.

"He should be behind this door," Lance whispers as they line both sides of the entrance at the end of the hall.

From inside, Trip can hear muffled sobs and whines. It was a confirmation of a prisoner on the other side of the door. She twists her sword in her hand, looking around to see if everyone was ready. Shiro nods and reaches up his Galra hand.

Pressing it onto the keypad, it silently slides open after a few clicks and beeps. The group files in, still crouched and out of obvious sight.

Trip knew Galra prisoner cells very well. Even if they were in a different civilization's building, their cells wouldn't have a flat-screen TV. Or a snack table and a big cozy chair in the center. There would minimal lighting and stained floors.

At least...all of hers did.

Did she not deserve luxury?

On the giant TV at the end of the room, a film was rolling from a projector beside the snack table. On the screen was an alien woman leaning in the kiss a male lizard who was obviously telling her to back off.

In the giant comfy chair came the sobs they had heard from the other side of the door. A plump Olkarian sat in it, tissues held up to his eyes as he watched the screen intently and cried empty tears.

"She loves you!" He cries out and wipes under his eyes.

The 'rescue' group all stand up when they see the lack of guards inside. And the lack of prisoners.

Standing on the other side of the chair was another Olkarian. This one tall and thin and in obvious prison rags and shackles around their wrists. He was watching the floor in despair as his supposed king wailed beside him over a romance movie.

"King Lubos?" Trip speaks coldly from behind the chair. The others behind her stared at the leader of the Okarians blubber over a movie and use one of his own people as a slave.

He raises his round head and looks over the arm of the chair, "yes?" he asks casually, "are you the entertainment I requested?"

Trip tilts her head, her eyes gleaming in realization, "no. We were here to rescue you. But I don't think you want to be rescued, do you?"

Her voice was almost monotone, if not slightly mocking. It sent a chill down the spines of everyone who heard it. Had she reached peak anger over this man being a fake prisoner?

Lubos grunts, placing his palm on the arm of his chair. The lights of the room turn back up, making the movie almost invisible against the white wall. And the empty wall to the left slides open with a loud beep.

Trip raises her sword and turns towards the opening wall, watching as a line of centries appear. The rest of the team ready themselves beside her, raising guns and bayards and triggering robotic hands. In the center of the line of centries is a Galra man. Deep purple skin, one eye a deep mechanical red, and a burly build that resembled Harron. Trip sneers at that tiny resemblance.

The Galra steps forward, "it looks like someone tried to rescue you, Lubos," he chuckles and folds his arms behind his back.

He looks over the team in front of him like they're amusing circus acts with the sole purpose to entertain him. He takes a few steps forward to be in front of the line of guards pointing their guns at them. Like a show of dominance.

Keith scoffs beside Trip, his eyes on Lubos, who was now standing and glaring at them all.

"You call yourself a king?" he snaps at the round man and takes a threatening step towards him, Bayard raised and pointing at him. Lubos flinches, taking an equal step back towards the Galra, "you turned your back on your people to save your own skin!"

Lubos acts offended, placing a hand over his chest, "I'm doing this for my people!" He insists, "they wanted to fight the Galra but we would never win! They would be slaughtered!"

"You wanna see slaughtered?" Trip takes a large step forward, raising her sword in fury, "I'll redefine the word for you!"

This man has the audacity to call himself a leader still. To call them his people, when he fled and abandoned them to fend for themselves, and expects to be praised for it. It boiled her blood to just hear him trying to defend himself. But he couldn't defend himself if his jugular was cut.

An arm covered in red detailing pushes itself in front of her, halting her next step towards them. The centries behind the Olkarian load their guns and point them all at Trip. But as if she didn't notice, she doesn't move her eyes from the pitiful man in front of her. Keith doesn't drop his arm when she completely stops. She was angry, amazingly angry, and anger could lead to irrational thinking.

"So you enslave your people to build a superweapon?" Lance snaps, his gun pointed at the head Galra in the center of the room now but his eyes on Lubos

Lubos motions towards the Galra behind him, "he made me!"

"Did he also force-feed you?" The blue paladin snaps.

Keith finally drops his arm from in front of Trip, but moved in front of her instead, "alright that's it," he snarls.

He moves toward the Olkarian king himself before Trip gets a chance, grabbing his clean and silky robes by the collar and pulling him towards their small rescue force. He holds him in front of him, his Bayard pressing against his neck. Once he activated it, his throat would be slit and there would be no hope in saving him. Trip raises her eyebrows at the sudden violent act.

Sure, Keith had an obvious temper, but she had never actually seen him threaten someone's life. Nor did she think she would ever see it.

Kind of impressive.

"We're leaving here, and no one's stopping us or Lubos dies!" He warns, making the Olkarian tremble under his harsh grip.

The others behind him were just as shocked as Trip, "well that came out of nowhere," Hunk comments, lowering his gun ever so slightly

"You wouldn't want me to hurt your genius engineer, right?" Keith warns, visibly pressing the Bayard harder against his neck. Lubos swallows, eyes focusing on the leader of the invasion across from him.

The Galra shrugs his shoulders lazily, "be my guest," he says, unbothered by the situation, "he's outlived his use. The cube is done."

Trip didn't have to see him to know that Lubos' eyes doubled in size. He couldn't be used as leverage for them, but he still had value to his people. They had to get him out of here one way or another.

"We had a deal!" Lubos gasps, struggling against Keith's grip. The Galra smirked at his whimper.

Trip knew that smirk. She gave it herself on some occasions. Knowing you have more power than those you're against. It means you're about to watch the chaos unfold on your command. He was going to call an attack on them.

Just as he opened his mouth to give it, Trip reached down for her thigh holster. She was too far to stop him with her sword, so a dagger would have to do. She grips the smooth handle and yanks it free, throwing it forward at an angle in the same motion.

"Guards--AH!" he got a single word out before the small blade impaled the center of his knee cap. He went crumbling to the ground in agony, his centries watching him. Awaiting a command he hadn't gotten out yet.

"Oh my god!" Lance gasps behind her in amazement, "that was so awes--"

KABOOM!

The bursting of the wall beside them cut his praise off short. A white beam cut through the solid metal of the building, right between the centry guards and their small group. Smoke and puffs of flames went up as the hot metal crumbled and melted, leaving a gaping hole in the east side of the room.

Keith released Lubos to cover himself from any debris. Trip readied herself to run after him if he ran, not worried about covering herself from anything falling around her. To her surprise, the Olkarian didn't run. He merely cowered behind his hands.

"Your rides here!" Pidge's loud voice flies in from the other side of the hole. The green lion poked its head in, opening its mouth wide for the paladins and Trip to get in.

In the Galra's moment of shock and pain mixed into one, Trip grabs Lubos by his arm and almost flings him into the lion entirely. She would take no time in being gentle with him, and she hoped the rest of the Olkarians didn't either.

"Activate the Cube! Stop the lion!" The Galra regains his composure while still withering on the ground, clutching his knee and screeching in anger at the centries.

Gunfire begins suddenly, blasters aiming for their heads as they all spring to the lion's mouth. Lance and Hunk used their guns to suppress fire and get everyone enough time to climb on board. Trip had half a mind to throw Lubos off the lion entirely and watch him plummet to his death.

How satisfying that would be.

But he's not her responsibility. His punishment should be decided by his people. But she hopes its a painful one.

As the green lion landed where the Olkarians had rebuilt their homes, Lubos is tossed onto the ground by Shiro in front of Ryner. And his harshness confuses her.

"What's going on?" She asks, seeing Lubos' guilty expression and the fury on the Paladin's faces, "Lubos?" she looks down at her king.

Shiro speaks loudly for the gathered Olkarians to hear, "while your people starved, Lubos was well taken care of by the Galra!" he explains, "he willingly enslaved your people! Willingly designed a weapon for the Galra!"

Gasps and shocked shouts of 'Lubos' echo around the forest. Every face Trip saw was one of disbelief and betrayal. They put so much faith in, all of their faith. And he tossed it back at them to save himself. She could feel her anger at him increasing with every second she looked at him. Every begging stare he gave Ryner to let him explain.

"Lubos..." Ryner gasps herself, "how could you?"

"I was trying to--" he starts but doesn't get very far.

"Enough!" Ryner turns to the people all glaring at their former leader. He let thousands of them die, after all, and thousands more be enslaved. Ryne stands in front of him, blocking his face from the view of her people, "we have to fight! We have to save our people! We have to take back our home!"

Cheers erupt at those simple words. From every visible Olkarian, and even from those not visible.

What a hopeful race, Trip thinks to herself, to still fight after their leader betrayed them.

Like the Olympians. They get back up and hit whatever knocked them down twice as hard. Trip chews the inside of her lip as she drifts her eyes back down to Lubos. Maybe the Olympians and Olkarians were more alike than she originally thought. After all, their leaders abandoned them both in a time of need.


	22. Chapter 22

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> WARNING: GRAPHIC BLOOD AND GORE

"Commander," Trip looks away from the tumbling army of mech suits falling to the ground like ripe nuts. Ryner is approaching her with a spear in hand, "I have a request to ask of you."

Trip turns her body towards her, giving all attention to the new leader of the Olkarians.

"I would like you to lead the Olkarians into the city," she says confidently, "to take it back as ours and drive the Galra out."

Trip remains silent for a second, looking over Ryner's shoulder to the people behind her. Olkarians were climbing into mech suits and the ones who weren't were arming themselves with spears and blasters and the one that can be both. Each of them had the same look on their face, male and female alike, they all had determination rolling off of them.

Not the temporary kind that falters as soon as motivation drifts away. The kind that sits on your shoulders like a rock until what you set out to accomplish is complete. That look reminded her of her own people.

"We're not as well trained as your army," Ryner says when she sees her eyes drifting from person to person, "but we'll do whatever it takes to get our home back."

Trip gives a delicate smile, her hair shaking our around her with a nod, "that's all it takes to fight," she says, "I'd be honored to lead your people."

Ryner's eyes lit up. Voltron on their side in the sky and the general of the most notorious rebelling army on the ground. The ideal allies in any fight. This was practically already won.

"I'll gather everyone up," Ryner turns halfway around before stopping and looking back at her, "thank you," then she fully turns around and rushes off to gather every able body to the center again.

The paladins were gathering themselves into their lions to take on the cube that had been activated before they left. They were all gearing up with nerves. Even Shiro, who was just better at hiding it. Trip turns, thinking they don't expect her to be near them anyway. She was just extra weight in the lions, not of any actual use. But as she's walking away, Keith's voice stops her.

"Trip," He calls out while adjusting his helmet and watching her retreating figure, "you're with me."

Confusion washes over her face at his demand and she turns to see if he was making some kind of joke. Was he willingly trying to be in the vicinity with her? Was this a ploy to deliver her to the Galra as a peace offering?

Seeing her expression, he nods over his shoulder, "Shiro's orders," he says almost bitterly, "trust me, I don't want it either."

Shiro, hearing his name spoke, listens in to them. But he was just as confused as Trip. He hadn't given any orders to anyone yet. And after the falling fiasco in the city, he didn't think those two could stand each other right now. Not that they could at any other point in time. As proven when they were almost screaming at each other a few hours ago in an enemy base.

He huffs and says nothing. They were kids still. Even if one is a highly trained soldier with no time to actually be a kid, and the other is a foster child he took in a few years before disappearing.

Trip shakes her head, "I'm better on the ground," she says, "just try not to kick a teammate in the face while you're up there."

His pale cheeks tint red behind the glass of his helmet. She was teasing him again. She was being friendly. Why is that making his chest stuffy and his heart skip?

"It was an accident!" he huffs and turns his red face away from her and starts walking away.

Behind him, he hears a small laugh leave her lips. It felt louder to him than the rest of the voices surrounding them both. His ears zoned in on that almost silent sound by themselves, making his steps falter. He could hear it over Lance's confident shouts of winning, Shiro's commands to get in the lions, Hunk's nervous rambling of questions. That quiet laugh was inexplicably the loudest thing in the forest to his ears.

After regaining his stepping pace, he refuses to look at anyone. His face would be red for the next few minutes.

Trip watched him walk away, priding herself in the red that reached the tips of his ears. Her stomach fluttered with much more than butterflies. She smiles to herself, biting her lip to stop it from getting big enough to attract attention. She turns back to the Olkarians with her head ducked down until she fought the smile back under.

"Commander," Ryner says a few feet in front of her, "we all await your orders," she reaches out a hand, a small glowing wooden earpiece in her palm, "for communication," she says, "with us and Voltron while on the field."

Trip looks up, composing herself back to being stoic and the leader she is. She nods and takes it from her, stuffing it into her ear. It molded into the perfect shape for her, unmoving and comfortable. Much better than the stupid helmets that made her feel claustrophobic. She looks back up at the people she would be leading to victory or death.

The Olkarians were in perfect lines with weapons, the mech suits in the back in their own lines. They all stared at her expectantly, ready to fight to get back what's theirs.

"Okay," she nods, "first things first. The cube, what can you tell me about it?" she crosses her arms and awaits any information. She could ask Lubos himself, but he was in a cell in one of their tree-side buildings. Plus she would probably kill him if they were left alone.

Ryner nods, "it's one of our echo cubes," she begins explaining, "a smaller version is a kids toy that repeats back what it hears. But one that size and modified to be a superweapon? There's no telling the capabilities Lubos gave its design."

She practically spits the name of their former leader. Everyone in ear range sneers too. He had gone from their king to public enemy number one in a few hours. What a downfall that pleased Trip's soul. He deserved it.

If he deserves it, don't I?

Her joy at his downfall deflates at the uninvited thought. And whatever joy she got from teasing Keith deflated with it. She shoves that thought to the back of her mind, swallowing thickly. In an attempt to squash the sinking in her stomach down to dust, she sets her shoulders back and folds her hands behind her back. She appeared emotionless, but all she felt was a rush of them.

"So it's capable of echoing more than just sound?" She asks Ryner.

The Olkarian nods, "it's possible it could copy any attack thrown at it."

Trip nods, bringing one hand out from behind her and pressing her finger to her new earpiece. Her voice comes out rough and demanding.

"Shiro," she grabs his attention.

"Yeah, Trip?" He answers. The Lions still had yet to take off but were ready to at any moment. They were just waiting for Shiro's orders.

"Do you think you can get that cube as far out from the city as possible?" She asks, "from what I'm hearing it would wipe us out down here."

"Consider it done," he assures her, "we'll have it follow us out to the forest before the troops get there."

"Thanks," she drops her hand and turns her attention back on the Olkarians. Behind her, she hears the shaking roar of five lions, followed by a gust of wind as their feet thrusters pushed all of them into the sky. With the black lion in front, they surged out of sight and towards the city.

Numbers were no problem on the Olkarian's end. There plenty of them to establish a good plan.

And Trip's plan was an ambush. There was enough of them to have a line of offense around the entire east end of the city. They could back them either into the trees to run or against the tree line to be taken out. She's confident as she stands at the front and center of their line of bodies.

"They don't think you're people will attack," she explains quietly Ryner as they hide behind the cover of the trees, "they think Voltron is the only problem. We have that on our side."

As promised, Voltron had lured the giant cube far from the city, and now the guards believed that their only problem was being taken care of.

"On your word, commander," Ryner lifts her blaster with a determined expression.

Centries were patrolling the outskirts of the city, and beyond the few in front of her, Galran soldiers were watching the fight off in the distance between Voltron and the cube.

They were unsuspecting. This made Trip smirk. Galran were foolish. Thinking they're the most powerful force in the galaxy.

"Move!" Trip shouts and all at once, hundreds of Olkarian's go charging into the city. A war cry as loud as the lions of Voltron's roar shook the air of the city, catching every Galran and Centry in surprise and with their defenses down.

Mechsuits were first to reach the tree line, followed by those with blasters, and ending with those with spears. Trip, however, was in front with the Blasters. Her sword raised for whatever came at her or whoever stood in her path.

The first was a soldier with a shocked expression. He hesitated to raise his gun, and that was his first mistake. His second of hesitation gave Trip enough time to bring her sword down on his raising hand. Her blade sunk into his wrist and she felt it hit the bone. Without enough force to saw through it, she jerked it back and made him scream at the pain of severed muscles and nerve. Blood gushed out, coating the metal of her sword in a thick blanket.

He fell to his knees and clutched his wrist to his chest, his gun clattering to the ground. She runs past him, turning at the last second with her sword pointed at his back.

She dove her sword between the plates of his spine, angling it to slice through his heart at the same time.

If he sputtered or screamed, it was lost in the war cries of others around her.

As quickly as she finished him, she moved on to who was next. A centry running at her with his own sword raised.

Their blades clash together and Trip falls into a backward handspring. Once upon a time that would have been an impossible move for her to execute. But now, she lands on the balls of her feet and uses her remaining momentum to slide forward on her knees.

Still recovering from the loss of force against them, the centry fails to notice her blade swinging at its legs. She cleanly cuts through the metal and wiring holding its joints together. Sparks fly and the centry falls forward, dropping its sword and short-circuiting from the waist down.

She takes a moment to glance around, well aware that enemies around her would be using that moment to try and get a hit on her. But she felt the heat of every blaster shot before it could hit her and she could hear every swish of a sword through the air before it could get close to her.

She was looking for an Olkarian that needed help. She was commanding them so that meant she was responsible for every life on her side. She reluctantly realizes she's missed that weight on her shoulders.

She spots a line of Olkarians in matching black clothing, chained together in a long line before yanked by a Galran guard. They weren't adults yet, the prisoners. She could tell because of their height and stature. But they obviously weren't children. All of them were about her age in appearance. And the Galran guard was thrusting a gun in their direction, shouting words lost to her ears by the battle.

Ignoring the centry running at her, she takes off towards them. They were staring at the guard in some mixture of anger and fear. And she knew how they were feeling inside.

Furious at them for taking everything they had, but at the same time too scared to do anything about it. It's a helpless feeling. One that leaves a bad taste once its gone.

The soldier threatening them didn't know she was rushing at him. But the teenagers glaring at him noticed. The fear in the one in front diminished slightly. Trip didn't have time to focus on why she wouldn't terrify him just as much, she was too focused on timing her jump correctly.

She leaps into the air, her sword coming out in front of her. She locks her legs around the waist of the guard, who sucks in a breath. His last breath.

Trip's sword pressed against his jugular, one hand gripping the blade to press as hard as she can, and that alone spit the skin and made blood coat her skin. He gurgles beneath her and falls limp a second later.

She lets her legs loosen and she plants her feet on either side of him when he hits the ground. She lifts her eyes back up the group of teenagers staring at her in either horror or admiration.

She approaches them, making most jump back and quiver. But the one in front stares with sparkling eyes. She reaches for his shackles first, shoving her bloodied blade into the chains and twisting. Once it snaps, she looks up at him.

"Get to safety in the east trees," she says to him loudly, "save as many others as you can on the way but don't risk anything."

He nods vigorously as she moves onto the next prisoner. Realizing she was on their side, and not a rogue killer, they practically huddled around her to be freed. She snapped all of their shackles and told them to make a run for it. They sprinted away towards the east, running without looking back at her or at anyone else who was fighting.

But one, the first one, remained. She looks at him with wild eyes as a guard runs at her once he spotted her.

"Go!" She says, "now!"

She charges the guard, dropping to her knees and sliding under his swinging blade. She dove her own into his stomach, twisting and pulling out. From experience, that would hurt like a bitch. She's sure he screams but can't hear it to confirm.

She didn't have time to look and make sure the kid listened to her this time. There was too much going on to see if he had a good set of ears on him or not.

Leaving a trail of blood and sparks behind her, Trip was outside the building they had broken into before. The guards out front had deserted their posts and were probably out fighting or already dead. Either way, she could see up to the top clearly. And a purple figure stood in front of the top window, a scowl on his face. Things must not be going how he wanted, that means Voltron must have figure out the cube.

All at once, centries fighting around her began backing away, turning and running from the fight. Their programming had been changed to retreat. The Galran guards were scowling as they did the same, leaving wounded and dead behind as they ran towards the evacuation ships around the back of the city.

They ran one by one, leaving only Olkarians with proud smiles and wounded limbs. Cheers erupted as the purple ships lifting into the air whizzed out of the atmosphere, taking the enemies with them.

They had won.

Trip lifts a bloody hand to her earpiece, "I assume their leaving means we won," she says to team Voltron, "is the cube down?"

"It's down," Pidge says proudly into the system, "The green lion came through. We won."

"And you managed to kick no one in the face, Keith?"

"Let it go!" He barks.

She chuckles, taking in a deep breath and glancing around the battlefield of a city. Blood covered the streets and walls. It would wash away, but the memories of the stains would remain. They always did. She lets out the breath and says into the mic,

"We'll free the rest of the prisoners, see you all back at base camp."

After checking the field for any wounded Olkarians, Trip saw the lions flying towards them. Everyone cheered as they planted their mechanical paws in a line on the metal ground of the city. She was standing in their makeshift infirmary after dropping off the last injured.

Olkarians swarmed their heroes, screaming their thanks and dancing around on their toes. Trip stayed back, wiping the blood from unconscious people's wounds. She had all the time in the world to ask them how the battle went. There's no need to rush to them. But for some reason, her eyes are drawn in their direction anyway. She looks over each paladin individually, and her eyes fall on Keith last.

She didn't know she was staring at first. She felt like her eyes were only on him for a second, watching how his eyes glanced over the infirmary with an inkling of concern, how his arms crossed over his chest when Ryner approached them, how he angled himself away from her to avoid being spoken to. 

"You helped us get our home back," Ryner's saying to them. She can hear it even from her distance away, "and for that, we will always be grateful."

Shiro reaches a hand out to the new leader, "just promise us that when its time to take the fight to Zarkon, we can count on you guys to be on our side."

Ryner more than happily took his hand, "now and forever," she assures him.

Keith's head begins to turn in her direction, probably feeling eyes on him. She almost gets whiplash looking back down at the unconscious man in front of her. She focuses on wiping the last of the blood away from the cut on his arm, letting it fall to the ground beside her as she reaches for the bandages on her opposite side. She can feel her cheeks turning a little red, but blamed it on fading adrenalin.

The alliance was official, but the team didn't disperse just yet. Pidge and Ryner engaged in a conversation while both pressing their hands to the green lion, Hunk had managed to find himself the Olkarian children's newest playmate, and Shiro was helping move rubble of the Galra to the side. Lance, being Lance, was surrounded in every teenage girl that managed to spot him. When Trip saw him being swarmed with hugs and cheek kisses, she snorts. He was soaking it all in.

Footsteps approach from behind her as she watches Lance show his Bayard to his posse of fans. Her smile drops and her head whips around, hair hitting her face and sticking to the patches of dry blood on her cheeks.

But it was Keith, with stiff shoulders and hesitant steps. She relaxes, nodding in acknowledgment and then turning back to the wounded man.

"Do you uh..." he speaks from behind her, "do you need any help?"

She glances down the small row of injured. She was the only one helping them right now. A few others had been with her but left when the lions appeared. Help wouldn't hurt.

"I won't say no to an extra pair of hands," she says and presses down the bandages so they stick. Done with his injuries, she grabs the cloth and stands up. When she turns, she wasn't expecting him to be as close as he was.

When she registers his proximity, she's eye level with his chest and half a step away from being able to feel his body heat. She's already close enough to smell whatever alien shampoo was in his shower. It had faded in the sweat of battle, but it lingered on his suit. Whatever it was rewired her brain for a second and made whatever words were on her tongue dissolve before they reached her lips.

Keith practically jumped back to get away from her. He didn't expect her to be that close either. Close enough to count her eyelashes if she looked up.

With him a few steps farther, she can put the pieces of her sentence back together, which turns out to be harder than normal since her heart is beating into her throat. But she fixes her words and can speak a second later.

"We just need to clean and cover any open wounds," she says as if she hadn't been tongue tied a second ago, "to avoid infection before they get their hospital back open. Here," she reaches into her pocket to pull out two clean pieces of cloth. She hands one out to him, "to clean it with."

He takes it by grabbing the end farthest from her hand, like touching her would turn him to ash. She doesn't notice, probably because she wasn't looking directly at him for fear she would forget how to talk again.

Trip turns away and begins to walk over to the next person in line, taking a few deep breaths as she does.

If every interaction with him is going to be like this, then this war better end tomorrow.

As Keith watches her bend down over the woman with a blaster burn on her leg, he reaches his hand down to his waist. Attached to his belt line was his knife, the one wrapped in linen most of the time. He can trace the mark against its covering by memory since he had been doing it his whole life when nervous.

If he's going to ask her about it, now's the time. When no other paladin is around. Because what if he doesn't like the answer? What if his mother isn't the hero his dad made her out to be? If he doesn't like the answer, then his friends certainly won't. And the last thing he needs in the middle of a space war is for his team to turn on him.

It didn't matter if Trip hated him. He could handle that. But Shiro? If Shiro turned away, he would really have lost everything. Granted, there's little chance of that happening. But there's still a chance.

He sucks in a deep breath through his nose, gripping the handle of his covered knife like its a lifeline. Just as he moves his foot forward in her direction, something stops him besides nerves.

"We found a survivor!" Shiro shouts from the distant left.

All heads turn in his direction. He was helping move rubble from the fight and was now standing on top of a pile of centries to yell at anyone who could help. But no one moved for a second.

"Its a kid!" He shouts louder, "we need help getting them out!"

Trip's feet propelled her forward instantly, rushing her past Keith and every other bystander who was shocked at his words. But as soon as she went running by, others started to move too. It was like they needed to see someone else doing something to know it was real. Keith followed behind her by a few steps, knife resheathed and his questions pushed aside.

Trip had seen kids hurt before by Galra, sometimes worse than just hurt. And something about seeing innocence so crushed at so young was enough to make her see red. Probably because she had been a child herself when she was thrust into the middle of it all. She knew the fear they felt when they desperately searched for parents that couldn't search back. The desperate urge to help yourself and others around you and the frustration that follows when you realize you can't.

She skidded to a halt at the end of the pile, beside Shiro and few Olkari.

She had seen hurt before. But this was beyond that.

The kid had been crushed by a falling piece of the Galra tech. From the bottom of his chest and down, his bones were shattered. So badly that broken pieces had burst from his green skin, blood pooling around his fallen frame. His eyes were open, but his frantically heaving chest gave away that he couldn't breathe to scream.

Shiro and the other Olkarians were pushing the debris up enough for Trip and Keith, the first ones to arrive on the scene, to grip his arms and pull him away from it.

Trip knew on sight why he couldn't breathe. A rib had been splintered and was going through his lung. Just through one, though. Which explained how he hadn't died yet. He had enough oxygen to survive a few more painful minutes.

"Oh my god," Keith mutters when he can fully take in the sight before him.

The mangled body of a kid, no more than seven, staring up at the unfamiliar faces above him. With terrified eyes filling with tears, he looked away from them and tried to find something else. Maybe something with comfort. Maybe his parents. Or a sibling or a friend. But no one came forward when the crowd migrated in their direction.

He was in the dark clothes the rescued prisoners were wearing, but they were just as torn as the rest of him.

Trip kneels beside him, her hands surprisingly steady when she reached out to him. Her hand rested gently on his cheek, making his eyes move to her. He opens his mouth to try and say something, but no audible words come out. Just a gurgle of pained whimpers followed blood dribbling from his lips.

It was like time stopped for everyone at that moment. The joy of winning and a new alliance had been completely washed away with the sight in front of him. The horror on everyone's face spoke the tone that replaced it. Even Ryner was mortified as she reached the front of the group

"Hey," Trip speaks so softly only the ones near her knew she was even talking, "hey, you're going to be just fine," she says with such confidence Shiro himself felt his anxiety waver as he dropped the debris.

But inside, Trip's stomach was a tangled mess of knots and rising bile.

"We'll get you fixed up in no time," she says to him, running a thumb under his eye. His chest began to heave faster. His little oxygen supply was out and he was panicking with seconds left to live, "you'll be back up and running soon," she swallows thickly and flashes a dazzling smile down him, "you have the city back. Did you hear? Have you ever seen the city without Galra before?"

He couldn't physically move his head to reply to her. She knew this. But hearing someone talk so casually when you think your world is ending has an effect on you. It makes you think 'hey, they're not panicking so why should I?'

And Trip had gotten very good at it. Pretending to be calm while her insides concave and fill with rage.

"It's beautiful," she says with another comforting stroke under his eye as he stared up at her, "I hear its the most amazing city in the galaxy. And you get to live in it."

Keith had to strain to hear her words even though it was the only sound being made on the planet. It's like no one dared to breathe while the child in front of them couldn't. Like it would be rude to.

How is her voice so steady? he wonders. He knew if he was the one talking to the kid, he wouldn't be able to form enough words to be understood. And the words that would manage to make it out wouldn't be ones someone in the kids' situation wants to hear.

"You'll get to see it," Trip whispers just as the heaving of the child's chest slows down to small pants, _"I promise." ___


	23. Chapter 23

There was a dark cloud over the entire castle of lions now. And one over each individual head inside.

Everyone was trying to swat theirs away with their own tactics. Keith and Shiro had doubled on their training exercises, sparing with each other under Trip's instructions. And for once, Keith didn't sneer every time she told him to focus on more than the obvious blow. Pidge and Hunk devoted all of their free time to their small lab in the hangar, fixing anything they spotted broken around the castle, trying to invent new add-ons for their lions. Lance was putting a lot of time into 'self-care' as he called it. Goop smeared on his face, smelling like a different flower every day, taking shows so long no one else had any hot water.

Trip spent a lot of time talking to Haylee and Harron and Ella when she wasn't on the training deck. The small communication devices the princess gave them was becoming an everyday carry around the castle. It was comforting seeing the pink hair of Haylee and the underbite of Harron every afternoon.

Today was no different. She held herself up in the observation room, a big open room with an entire glass wall so you could look over the endless space around them. There was no furniture inside to get comfortable on, just a single step down to get closer to the window. She sat on that step and held up the device in front of her.

Harron was in the commanders' hut until she got back, and Haylee and Ella were staying there with him. They use to have sleepovers there as kids after training. Once Harron and she actually got along, at least. But that was so long ago, seeing the throne as a background behind them felt odd. Not uncomfortable, just new.

"Squad 8 took down the Galran ships orbiting a Balmera a few clicks west from here," Harron is explaining to her as she sits on the step of the room, "they got back last night. No casualties on our side or on the Balmera."

She nods, "good. Any signs of being followed?"

"None," he assures her, "we tore the ship apart looking for a tracking device. Just like you asked."

Trip could hear the annoyance in his voice as he added that on. But she couldn't help it. After Haggar made her think that they had been followed back, she's had a sinking feeling every time Harron told her a ship returned with no casualties. That's supposed to make her feel good and proud of her second. He was doing right as Heda. Like she knew he would. But now she's just worried that they only allowed them to get away to follow them back.

She sighs, resting an elbow on her knee and her head on her fist.

"It's not you, Harron," she assures him, "I know you're being a great Heda. I've just been..." shaky? Scared? Terrified? "paranoid recently."

He grunts in understanding. Behind him, Haylee gives her an understanding tilt of the head, the bundle in her arms squirming.

"I know," He says, "but everything's fine on our end. Just focus on getting those paladins in order before coming home."

She nods, cracking her knuckles on the hand not holding the device, "yeah. I know," she sighs and feels her shoulders slump in exhaustion.

She hasn't told them about the kid on Olkari. She didn't plan on it, either. There was no need to tell them about something that didn' pertain to their lives. Both of them obviously knew something was bothering her. But they had known her for long enough to know that she wouldn't tell them unless she wanted to. And she didn't want to.

The blankets in Haylee's arms let out a high-pitched whine, making Harron flinch in front of her at the volume. Haylee only laughs and looks down at Ella.

"Someone wants to see you," she says and walks around to stand in front of Harron. Trip visibly perks up when she realizes what she's saying. Haylee crouches to lean the blanket towards the device's view.

Ella's grown since she had last seen her. She was two months now and knew exactly who she was looking at when someone stood in front of her. She was amazingly bright. Her nearly neon blue eyes, identical to her mothers, focused on the screen like she knew exactly where to look for her aunt.

When she sees Trip, she flashes a toothless grin that crinkles the corners of her eyes, a smile she got from her dad. The sight melted Trip's heart to a pile of happy goo.

"Hi, Ella," she gives a small wave and matching smile, "you're so big now!

The baby squeals, a hiccup interrupting her at the end. She didn't let that stop her from squirming in her blankets, though. Her tuffs of bright pink hair now covered her entire head, but we as untamed as her father's locks.

The stress melted away as a chubby hand freed itself from the blankets and reached towards the screen. Trip was amazed she remembered her at all. Or maybe she didn't, maybe she just as friendly as her mother.

Harron laughs, "looks like she remembers you," he says like he was reading her mind.

Trip chuckles and gazes at her lovingly, "she got her mom's smarts then."

His smile turns to a scowl of irritation, making both girls laugh. Ella sensed the happiness in their laughs, letting out her own squeal to accompany them. Harron dropped the annoyance immediately, moving his head to look down at her over Haylee's shoulder.

Trip watched her two best friends look down at their baby in devotion. They were so happy together, so in love. They were a picture of the perfect family on a magazine cover at the space mall. Everything someone wants in a happy life. Minus a few key things, of course. Like the fact that Harron was taking over as a leader of an army in the middle of a war. But even that didn't seem to be affecting how much they loved each other.

It didn't stress their relationship like it did for Trips. Or if it did, they always worked through it. And the baby in Haylee's arms was born from nothing but their love. She would grow up with love and live surrounded by it her entire life.

In the back of her already crowded mind, Trip wonders of her own parents. Were they this in love when she was created? When she was born? Had she grown up with them on the beach her mother told stories of, would she have been loved as much as Ella is?

With the thought of what could have been getting louder and louder by the second, her smile fades into a sunken frown. Even if that could have been, it wasn't. And it never would be. She couldn't dwell on it. She could only live the life she was given like it's the one she wanted. After all, it's the one she's meant for.

She's meant to live with a single song in her heart voiced by her mother's fleeting memory. She's meant to one day walk into battle and not come out. She would not have what Haylee and Harron have. Her life was meant to stop at the end of a blade or the barrel of a gun. Not by old age surrounded by family and friends like theirs would.

But if she has to live that life for Haylee and Harron to live their happy one, to be the commander she was told she'd be so Harron didn't have to, she could do it. Just to see the smiles on their faces when they looked down at their baby.

Sudden shouting on their end brings her mind back to reality. They all focus in on it, and Harron groans.

"It's Baldrick and Cenine," he huffs, "this is the third time since you left."

Trip gives out a weak laugh, "good luck with that," she says as he leaves her view. Haylee moves to the center, eyes watching her husband until he obviously out of the room. Trip knows because of her sudden change in demeanor.

She brings the baby back to her chest and moves her serious expression to her sister.

"What happened?" She demands, making Trip scrunch her nose.

"What do you mean?" She plays dumb and rests her head back on her fist. Haylee rolls her eyes.

"I know when you're hiding something," she accuses, "especially when it's bothering you. You can't lie to me--"

Trip scoffs, "you could just let me lie."

"I've known you for too long," Haylee finishes and ignores the interrupting comment made. Of course, she's right. She always is. Not to mention, Trip trusted her. After Litarra died, and she was put on the throne, she couldn't show a single kind of emotion. In the first few months of being a leader, she had to be stone cold. Death couldn't affect her, lost battles couldn't affect her, nothing could be allowed to make her waver.

But with Haylee, it's always been different. She didn't judge, didn't call her less. She just made her feel normal.

Before she can say anything, she hears a shuffle behind her. Not light enough for someone to be sneaking up on her and not fast enough to be someone trying to attack. She moves her head to look over her shoulder.

Surprisingly, it was Lance. Dressed in a long blue robe and blue pants underneath. His slippers were unmistakably in the shape of blue lions. He was true to his brand, that's for sure. He spots the device in her hand as soon as he walks in.

"Sorry, I didn't think anyone was in here," he begins to back away hurriedly.

Haylee smiles, "It's okay," she says loud enough to be heard by him, "I have to go anyway, Ella's getting tired."

Trip nods solemnly and says a soft goodbye before turning off the device. She shoves it into the pocket on the pair of tights she has on. She wasn't fully armored like she usually was. Just her arm braces and her sword strapped to her back. Just so she wasn't completely unprotected if they were attacked.

His footsteps didn't leave even when the device was put up. Trip didn't care much, she just settled her eyes on the stars passing by them slowly. It was kind of a relaxing day while they all figured out their next move, so they were coasting through open space.

"Trip," he finally speaks up from behind her, "you seem pretty alright."

He wasn't saying it like it was a bad thing. Like he was noticing it for the first time that she functioning pretty good for someone who just held a dying child in their arms a day ago. She wasn't as shaky as Pidge was, or as desperate to fill the silence as Hunk. She wasn't keeping her mind too busy to think about it like Shiro and Keith. And Lance was trying to focus on anything other than the image in his head. Like making sure his skin was smooth, trying products hair products they got from other planets.

She looks back in confusion, "I am alright," she says, "why do you sound so shocked?"

He itches the back of his neck nervously before replying, "well after what happened on Olkari...it was your first mission since Haggar. I kind of figured you would be more...traumatized?"

The last word was hesitant and spoken without looking at her. He was expecting anger but got a chuckle that made him look at to see if she was going to be laughing hysterically. He has no idea what was going through her head. Of course, he thought she was fine. He only saw the calm and collected surface, not her mind racing a million miles an hour with horrific memories on repeat.

"This isn't the first time a kid died on my watch," she looks back towards the front of the room. The huge window made it feel bigger than the rest of the castle. That's why Lance liked it in here, it didn't feel like the walls were closing in on him. He wondered briefly why she liked it.

Trip hears him approaching her from behind but doesn't worry about his presence enough to watch him. He wasn't a threat to her.

The entire team had been deemed not a threat by her. Even Keith, who she sometimes thought could go over the edge on a rampage if something pushed him far enough. They were good people, so she didn't tense when Lance sits down on the step beside her.

They sit side-by-side, staring at the passing stars in silence for a while. The first comfortable silence she's felt since leaving home. No tense air, no threat looming over them, no death in front of them. His breathing beside her was almost a comfort. She didn't realize how deafening it was to be alone until she wasn't.

He broke it after a few minutes, "that kid," he says in a whisper so soft she almost didn't hear it, "how old do you think he was?"

She clenches her fist against her tank top, picturing his face in her head. The fear in his big eyes, the blood on his lips. Her throat tightens with an empty swallow.

"Maybe seven or eight," she answers calmly.

"He was just a kid," Lance says upon processing her answer. With a shaky voice and even shakier hands, he found himself wanting to talk about what happened. And who better to discuss war trauma with than the girl beside him, "and the Galra didn't care. They enslaved him and killed him."

She looks over at him sadly. He hasn't been around long enough to know just how many kids the Galra have killed or left orphaned without caring. She can vaguely remember when she first realized who the Galra actually are. To see how ruthless they are for the first time crushes something in you. It squashes out the glimmer of hope that they can turn themselves around and be good.

"Yeah," she says and looks back out to the window, "yeah they did. They do it everywhere they go."

He shakes his hanging head and begins to fiddle with the open tie of his robe. She couldn't see it, but his eyes were brimming with water. It was seconds away from falling but he didn't want to cry in front of her. She was emotionless and as cool as ever, even after experiencing the same thing he did.

"But I think Voltron can stop it," she says suddenly with a falsely calm voice, "I'd bet my life on it, even."

She failed to mention she already did. If this war didn't end with Voltron on top, it was her head the Olympians would want on a stick more than Zarkon's. She's promised them peace, and that's a big thing now.

"You're thinking a little too highly of us," Lance laughs with a clogged throat and leans back on his elbows. He takes in a deep breath to calm himself.

Talking about this was a little different than just thinking about it.

Trip chuckles, "I hope not," she admits and wraps her arms around her knees, "my sister just had a baby. I don't want her to be the next kid I see dying," she closes her eyes and shakes the image away before it can begin to render, "So for my sake, let's keep telling ourselves that Voltron can do it."

She wasn't sure why she told him that. But knowing she had a niece isn't too big of a confession. It's not like he would go running to Haggar and tell her she had a weakness the size of a bug.

Lance slowly nods, taking in that information. He could almost laugh at the thought of Trip being an aunt. Trip, who doesn't leave her room without her sword on her back, or doesn't so much as smile at any of them on the training deck. For some reason, he couldn't picture her with a family. It just didn't fit the girl he had grown used to seeing cut off heads of centries like they were made of clay.

He laughs through his nose, "okay," he says, "we can do that. I have a niece too. Her name's Alicia."

Trip rests her chin on the tops of her knees, "I like that," she admits with a small smile, "how old is she?"

"She's probably had her birthday since we left. So three years now," he smiles as he sees his niece and nephew in his mind in their terrible twos. He had to lock his bedroom door so they didn't trash it when he was at school. But they were suckers for their uncle Lance and would usually stop what they were doing when he asked. It annoyed his brother to no end, "what about your niece? What's her name?"

Trip bites her lip. She didn't normally like giving things away about her life. But Lance had opened up to her the tiniest bit. It was only fair that she did the same. In her mind, it's a show of good faith. In his, it's two people having a conversation.

"Ella," she says, "she's a month old now."

"So she's fresh," he says without thinking.

The use of the word 'fresh' made Trip snort loudly. She covers her mouth and laughs into her palm. Lance stares at her with wide eyes, wondering what was actually funny enough to make her laugh.

"She's not a Fili fruit," she says with another laugh and then drops her hand so her smile is visible.

Lance tilts his head in confusion, "huh?"

"You said she's 'fresh'," Trip explains, "she's a baby, not food."

Lance shrugs and sits back up, "I mean she's...she's..." he racks his brain for a long second, "fresh?" his voice goes up in a question. He throws his hands in the air when he can't find a better word, "I can't describe it any other way!"

Trip laughs again, shaking her head. She looks over at him, "how about new-born?" she suggests in a teasing voice, "or is that too complicated for you?

He playfully rolls his eyes, his own smile cracking as the gray cloud above his head lightens a few shades, "too many syllables," he waves it off, "I'm sticking with fresh."

"Whatever flies your ship," she shrugs. They both turn back to the window with smiles, and she's now oddly happy with his presence beside her.

They both turn back to the window with smiles, and she's now oddly happy with his presence beside her

Keith stands just outside the doorway to the observatory room. Allura had said Trip had gone in here to talk with her second, but when he arrived it was just her and Lance sitting in silence.

He couldn't bring himself to leave when he heard their conversation starting up. It was more personal then he thought her capable of. She had real emotion in her voice when she talked about her niece. It sounded as close to a loving tone as she could probably get. It was the most personal piece of information he had ever gotten about her. That and she had been born in a Galra prison cell.

Once the conversation strays to something more casual, Lance's weird use of the word Fresh, he decided now was a good time to make himself known.

Trip turns around as soon as she hears new footsteps entering, a smile still playing on her lips. She doesn't drop it immediately like she probably would have a month ago, and she doesn't tense when realizing it's him.

"Lance," Keith calls out to get his attention. The Blue paladin turns his head around to see him.

"Yeah, buddy?" He asks. The nickname made Keith raise an eyebrow but he didn't question it. He had more important things to discuss than that.

"Pidge wants you," he says, "testing something for Blue, I think."

Pidge wasn't actually looking for him. She was three hours deep in making repairs to the Green lion after it plummeted on Olkari. But Lance would make good company for her. If not, he and Hunk would have a great time annoying her together. Keith just needs to get the commander alone for a few minutes to ask about the blade finally.

Lance nods, pushing himself to his feet and stretching his arms above his head.

"Thanks," he says and turns around to go up the single step, "see ya later, Trip."

She gives a small wave before readjusting her eyes outside, obviously not expecting either to stay behind. But Keith stands in the doorway even after Lance has turned the corner of the hallway, watching her back while he tries to find the words to bring up his mind-eating questions.

She's sitting on the step with her knees bent, her arms crossed and resting on top of them. She looked peaceful gazing out at the stars, though he could tell she wasn't actually seeing them. She's half lost in her own world, half paying attention to the one around her. The one that required attention at all times or you risk being attacked.

"You don't have to stand there," she comments back to him, "I won't attack...unless you kick me again."

He scoffs, shaking his head and walking fully into the room. Hearing the tiny sound, she smirks to herself. Irritating him brought her a special kind of joy.

He sits beside her on the step, legs stretching out in front of him and a few spaces farther than Lance did. He glances at her from that short distance, finding her eyes glazed over in thought and not at all like the ones of the girl from a month ago when they met.

"Trip," he finally decides to suck it up and get to the point of why he came in here, "I have something to ask you."

She tilts her head in his direction so she can see him while he speaks. He reaches to his belt, where his knife is in its usual position. She watches his hand carefully, not totally sure he wouldn't try to stab her just as she deemed him not a threat. But he only holds it up so the blade glints in the light.

The way he held it gave away that it was important to him. She could tell when he ran a thumb over the fabric covering in the middle without realizing it. So he either earned it, or it was given to him. But because his question was based around it, she assumed he didn't earn it. He would have more information on it than her if he did.

"Do you know anything about this?" He asks. His voice was surprisingly steady for how nervous he was, even to him. He sounded like he was just asking a casual question with no life-altering answer on the other end of it. She eyes the curved design carefully, her eyes moving between him and the blade.

Did he really have no idea where it came from? He didn't kill someone for it?

Judging by the stare he was giving it, the confusion he held in his eyes, there's only one way he could have gotten a hold of one.

"I might," she says cautiously and extends one of her legs out in front of her. She presses her knuckles against the ground, cracking them loudly. Keith was beginning to think she just did it out of habit now. She didn't react at the shock that surely came when she did that, "can I see it?"

He looks over at her finally, seeing she was staring at it harshly. Not angrily, like he was sure a lot of others would. She was practically drilling a curious hole into it. His hands don't move quickly, but he pushes the handle in her direction through the air. He almost didn't. He almost said forget it and left. But if he didn't find out, he would regret it for the rest of his life.

She rolls her eyes at the distance he had between them. In order to reach it, she has to slide closer to him. Maybe she overshot how far she had to slide and wound up a little closer than she meant to be. But she was able to grab it when she stopped.

Their fingers brushed as she takes it from his grasp. The electricity that shoots up his veins makes him almost drop the knife before she can grab it securely. His hand tingles from the split second of contact it had with hers. Like pins and needles after sleeping on it for too long. He glances up at her face to see if she felt it too. But when he doesn't see so much as a flinch, he assumes it was static from their fresh laundry.

She carefully unwraps the cloth that was covering the marking in the center of the handle. His dad had instructed him to keep it covered when he gave it to him, but he never knew why. If what he's thinking is true, then now he knows. If Trip can confirm it, it's because his mother is Galra.

She doesn't unwrap it entirely, just enough to see the purple mark that would cast light in the dark. She hums, as if confirming her thoughts, and then pulls the wrapping back over it. She didn't seem horrified or disgusted, so he has hopes that maybe he had been thinking wrong. Maybe it was from eBay by some lost company that didn't make them anymore.

"The Blade of Marmora," she says as she holds the handle out to him, "how'd you manage to get one?"

When he grabs it this time, he makes sure to avoid any contact with her hand so he doesn't get shocked this time. After tightening the cloth back over the center, he turns it over in his hand again and again.

"I don't think that's any of your business," he says more angrily than he meant to sound. He bites his tongue and sighs, "sorry," he quickly says, "that was harsh."

To his shock, she didn't punch him on the spot. She didn't even snap at him. She was much too tired to do that right now. On Olympia it's probably around the time everyone goes to bed. But moving from planet to planet in a giant castle has her body clock ten kinds of messed up. It could just as easily be noon there.

She shrugs, "it's not," she admits, "just curious."

He can't look at her when he pushes for more answers, so he kept his eyes steady on his mother's knife, "who are they? The Blade of Marmora?"

So he really doesn't know, she says to herself.

"A group of rebelling Galra," she explains, "second biggest anti-empire force in the galaxy. Olympia's worked with them before. Taken in the refugees they save from prison ships."

Ulaz's face flashes through her mind. She hadn't seen him in a long time. Not since he dropped her off on Olympia himself, his friend carrying her mother's body to be buried on free land. The Blade had shown up since then plenty of times, but never Ulaz. Sometimes Litarra would say he had spoken to him when she asked about him. Even as the new Heda, she never spoke with him or heard his name mentioned. She began to assume he was dead after a while. Still, his face had been the first clear face she had seen in sunlight.

His entirely yellow eyes would be burned into her brain forever, but not in a bad way. He saved her, after all, by bringing her to her new home. She would always wonder what became of him after watching him board his ship 11 years ago.

Maybe he found someplace nice to stay. Maybe he was living it up on a forgotten planet with beaches like the one her mother told her about. Maybe he had his own family like Haylee and Harron. Whatever god is out there knows he deserves it.

"They're Galra," Keith's disgusted tone shocks her from her thoughts of her past. She looks at him with a raised eyebrow, "they're the enemy!"

She gave a strong antipathetic look, practically jerking back from him. He fully turns his head to her when he sees the movement.

The rage was back. The flames that defined the character he knew had returned, but directed at him this time. Her hands were clenched, knuckles visibly white.

"Despite popular opinion," she barks, "not all Galra are bad."

Her words dripped in indignation. It confused the living hell out of him. You'd think she, of all people, would hate every Galra alive. She killed them for a living. But here she was, defending a group of supposed rebels who were probably just reporting back to Zarkon when someone gave them important information.

"Excuse me?" He scoffs and spins the knife in his grasp. Not threateningly, it's just something he does when it's in his hand, "they just killed a kid on Olkaria! Crushed him from the chest down!"

"The empire did--" she bites her tongue, her hands practically shaking in fists on the ground. She stands up abruptly, spinning around and walking towards the door with heavy steps and ragged breathing, "you're lucky you're a paladin of Voltron," she spits without looking back at him, "or your head would be backward right now."

He stands up, turning to glare at her back as she stomped from the room, "you of all people should know that nothing good has ever come from the Galra! You said you were born in one of their prison cells!"

She turned on her heel to look at him. It was like all anger deflated from her at that point. Her hands unclenched, her eyes turned hollow. But she was still staring at him, not through him. She was dead calm. Scary calm. It rattles his chest when he sees all of the anger drain away. There had been an infinite amount of it seconds ago. How can that all just disappear? It has to go somewhere. At least, with him it does.

He bites back whatever comment he was about to make. Maybe that was taking it too far. That had to be a sore subject for her. And the state bringing it up leaves her in is borderline terrifying.

"Keith," she says calmly, taking a few calm steps forward whilst cracking her knuckles, "I'm gonna punch your fuckin' face in."

No more threats could be made, and no more advances taken. The whole ship shook in the same moment she placed a foot down. At first, it seemed like a mechanical problem since Coran was trying to fix the teleduv and said there would be a few loud noises.

But it shook again and this time harder, meaning it couldn't be Coran trying to fix something.

Allura's voice makes both enraged teenagers drop their fighting, "Zarkon has found us! We need everyone in the control room!"


End file.
